Hackers Run Wild and Free on AOL

[JonECat]

Hackers Run Wild and Free on AOL (http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57753,00.html)

Using a combination of trade tricks and clever programming, hackers have thoroughly compromised security at America Online, potentially exposing the personal information of AOL's 35 million users.

The most recent exploit, launched last week, gave a hacker full access to Merlin, AOL's latest customer database application. As a security measure, Merlin runs only on AOL's internal network, but savvy hackers have found a way to break in.

The hack involves tricking an AOL employee into accepting a file using Instant Messenger or uploading a Trojan horse to an AOL file library. When the file is executed, the Trojan horse connects the user

[Greymon]

[ QUOTE ]
The hack involves tricking an AOL employee

[/ QUOTE ]

A stupid employee is a hacker's best friend. I wonder how many hacks and virus have been wrought by stupid employees?

[nosferatuscoffin]

AOL has been wide open since it's inception over 15 years ago. Just look at their billing records.

AOL is and always shall be the Clinton of the Information Superhighway.

Good thing that 5 years from now that they shall no longer exist.

Nos

[Greymon]

[ QUOTE ]
Good thing that 5 years from now that they shall no longer exist.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's going to be hard to disappear when you've got 35 million customers.

[JonECat]

[ QUOTE ]
Greymon said:
[ QUOTE ]
Good thing that 5 years from now that they shall no longer exist.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's going to be hard to disappear when you've got 35 million customers.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's been done.

[nosferatuscoffin]

They've lost close to 10 million customers to MSN alone in the last 2.5 years.

My cat's brand of litter stock is worth more than that garbage.

Good riddance to them.

Nos

[dajoga]

[ QUOTE ]
My cat's brand of litter stock is worth more than that garbage.

[/ QUOTE ]

nos--didn't you mean, My cat's used litter stock is worth more that that gargage? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon34.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon34.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon133.gif

[Rhino]

[ QUOTE ]
JonECat2002 said:
Using a combination of trade tricks and clever programming, hackers have thoroughly compromised security at America Online, potentially exposing the personal information of AOL's 35 million users.

[/ QUOTE ]
In other words, nothing whatsoever has changed at AOL.

[BEST45CAL]

I currently have the super-economy AOL at $4.95/mo. for 3 hours.

Once all of my email is switched over, I will be totally rid of AOL by the end of April. I think their service is absolutely horrible.

Their live online help staff are extremely incompetent. If I were to ask three different troubleshooters the same question, it was not uncommon for me to get three different answers.

The answers to most of the problems that I have encountered with AOL over the past five years, is to stay with the previous version.

When aol 8.0 came out, you were better off staying with AOL 7.0. By the time 8.0 was unleashed on the public, 7.0 had all of its bugs worked out. Etc., etc.

I've switched my ISP to Juno Platinum, $9.95/mo.

So far, so good with Juno. Faster page loads, too.

There is life after AOL and it is grand.

AOL/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon120.gif

[Keith J]

I better get to hording all those AOL CD's...I have a plan to make a geodesic solar collector out of a few hundred...cut the CD's into polygons that link together to form a cooker...I have a prototype that will get a small cup of water hot in 5 minutes...

When you have free construction material, you can build a mountain.

[nosferatuscoffin]

Well, sooner or later it is going to end up like on Futurama when, while piloting their spaceship, they were not worried about dodging dead satellites and assorted space debris from the 1960's, but the 20 billion AOL disks that were dumped in Earth's orbit.

[Greymon]

[ QUOTE ]
JonECat2002 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Greymon said:
[ QUOTE ]
Good thing that 5 years from now that they shall no longer exist.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's going to be hard to disappear when you've got 35 million customers.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's been done.

[/ QUOTE ]

By who?

[Rhino]

IBM PCs maybe?

Besides, their customer numbers are steadily dropping.

[Greymon]

I read just this past week that AOL was down to 34 million subscribers. That doesn't sound too bad considering the way the economy has been running.

[Rhino]

Maybe not, but they were losing customers before then, and continue to despite many gains by others in the field.