Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Jan 2006
- Posts
- 4,313
Long post warning...sorry
Hi all
Got a bit of a question for all you internet/wifi expert types
Firstly some background then the strange occurance.
My parents have a pc at home which is hooked up to a netgear router/switch (standard one provided by virgin - adsl not cable internet) which provides their internet.
They have the wireless switched on and secured with a wep key (not ideal I know but it's how it was setup as standard and was simple for them to setup). It only really gets used by my brother and I when we visit as our HTC phones are both setup to connect to it.
From time to time my mum uses their pc to check her work emails. She does this by logging into her works exchange email server. To do this she enters the ip address of the server in internet explorer then enters her username and password to get into her email.
Today, while at work and using her works laptop (which although she use it at home sometimes, is never connected to their internet either wirelessly nor wired) she was checking her work emails. One of the emails from a company she deals with regularly (which supplies food related products suitable for Coeliacs) , had a link to a survey to fill in to be entered into a prize draw to win some free products.
She clicked on the link (I know...and I have told her off for this!). It opened up a webpage with the survey on it asking some questions about various products etc. She filled it in, which was just a case of ticking a few boxes, then clicked submit, this then took her to a page to enter her name, address etc.
Now the strange bit...
When she looked, the details were already filled in, not too strange you think... Well the details weren't hers but instead were those of a person who lives pretty much directly across the road from my parents!!! The only detail that was my mums was the email address.
My parents router is in the study (well, box room
) upstairs at the front of the house and probably has a link of sight direct to the house of the person across the road whose details were in the form.
I'm a bit confuzzled as to what exactly has occured.
Has the girl across the road connected to my parents wifi?
If so has she then access my mums works email server, seen a link in some other email from this same company and filled in her details which have then been linked with my mums email address and hence auto filled in when my mum has visited another page from this company?
Would someone who has enough know how to break a wep code (simple enough I know) then find out the ip address, username and password for my mums work emails, then make the mistake of using her actual details when filling in a form in a website?
Is there anything else which could have happened?
I have told my mum to switch off the wifi on the router until I can get round to setup wpa2 with a decent and unguessable passcode.
I have also told her to change her works email password
I also told her to speak to the company and see what contact address/details they have for her works email address and if possible find out how they have got them...ie filled in from a web page?
Any thoughts about what has gone on?
Hi all
Got a bit of a question for all you internet/wifi expert types
Firstly some background then the strange occurance.
My parents have a pc at home which is hooked up to a netgear router/switch (standard one provided by virgin - adsl not cable internet) which provides their internet.
They have the wireless switched on and secured with a wep key (not ideal I know but it's how it was setup as standard and was simple for them to setup). It only really gets used by my brother and I when we visit as our HTC phones are both setup to connect to it.
From time to time my mum uses their pc to check her work emails. She does this by logging into her works exchange email server. To do this she enters the ip address of the server in internet explorer then enters her username and password to get into her email.
Today, while at work and using her works laptop (which although she use it at home sometimes, is never connected to their internet either wirelessly nor wired) she was checking her work emails. One of the emails from a company she deals with regularly (which supplies food related products suitable for Coeliacs) , had a link to a survey to fill in to be entered into a prize draw to win some free products.
She clicked on the link (I know...and I have told her off for this!). It opened up a webpage with the survey on it asking some questions about various products etc. She filled it in, which was just a case of ticking a few boxes, then clicked submit, this then took her to a page to enter her name, address etc.
Now the strange bit...
When she looked, the details were already filled in, not too strange you think... Well the details weren't hers but instead were those of a person who lives pretty much directly across the road from my parents!!! The only detail that was my mums was the email address.
My parents router is in the study (well, box room
) upstairs at the front of the house and probably has a link of sight direct to the house of the person across the road whose details were in the form.I'm a bit confuzzled as to what exactly has occured.
Has the girl across the road connected to my parents wifi?
If so has she then access my mums works email server, seen a link in some other email from this same company and filled in her details which have then been linked with my mums email address and hence auto filled in when my mum has visited another page from this company?
Would someone who has enough know how to break a wep code (simple enough I know) then find out the ip address, username and password for my mums work emails, then make the mistake of using her actual details when filling in a form in a website?
Is there anything else which could have happened?
I have told my mum to switch off the wifi on the router until I can get round to setup wpa2 with a decent and unguessable passcode.
I have also told her to change her works email password
I also told her to speak to the company and see what contact address/details they have for her works email address and if possible find out how they have got them...ie filled in from a web page?
Any thoughts about what has gone on?
