Let’s play $100 Password!

You probably won't find much sympathy for Elane Cioni. A mistress scorned, she's been convicted of hacking into the email account of her former-boss, the man with whom she was having an affair, and then his wife, his other girlfriends, and even his kids. (I suppose, that doesn't engender much sympathy for her main-target either.) But, you might be surprised to find out Cioni's not a very good hacker.

You might also be surprised to learn that there's a market for professional hacking and, similar to many legitimate professions, the jobs are going offshore. When it comes to password hacking, those who can, do. Those who can't, outsource. When Cioni wanted back into her boyfriend's life she turned to one of an increasing number of web sites with offers like this:

"Need to monitor your Child? Your Spouse? Your Boyfriend/Girlfriend? We Hack Passwords for $100 USD. We Crack all major web based emails. This include Hotmail, Yahoo! AOL and Gmail. We Provide Proofs Before payment."

Passwords for $100

One particular web site even states: "This unique service is 100% legal".

The Washington Post conducted an interview with the FBI to find out why these services remain online. "The FBI is aware of these illegal services," spokesman Paul Bresson said, "and we have been successful in the past in identifying criminal activity and working with prosecutors to bring indictments. Users of these services should know that just because a product is marketed on the Internet doesn't mean it's legal."

While Cioni had an agenda, the same password could have granted her access to her victims' bank accounts, insurance policies--access to practically any service that allows individuals to "log in". Once access has been gained, she could have reassigned passwords, and even rerouted email communications, effectively allowing her to assume the individual's identities. Fortunately, that wasn't her agenda. But, it's unknown how many of the nation's tens-of-millions of identity theft victims had their passwords purchased.

Making a case against Cioni wasn't very difficult. Of course, it helped that she mentioned things to her boyfriend that only someone who would have read his email would have known.  And, she used her own PayPal account to pay for the password hacking service. In case that wasn't enough, IP address records were subpoenaed from her Internet Service Provider (ISP), and her computer was searched to find fragments of her targets' email cached to her hard drive.

Then again, Elane Cioni is not a very good hacker.

You can listen to below an NPR interview on this topic, and hear more about this story:

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/06/AR2009090602238.html)

About Jeff M. Fischbach

Jeff Michael Fischbach is founder and President of SecondWave Information Systems (SecondWave.com), a consulting firm specializing in Forensic Technology. Since 1994, he has served as a board member and technology adviser to numerous professional organizations and corporations. Mr. Fischbach has been engaged as a litigation consultant and Forensic Examiner, offering expert advice and oversight on matters involving intellectual property, computers, information systems, satellite, tracking and wireless communications technologies. He has advised law enforcement, foreign government representatives, judges, lawyers and the press.