Many of us are aware of the fact that the domain of a popular tech blog – makeuseof was being hacked just a couple of days ago. As per sources, the name of the domain owner ‘Aibek’, was impersonated to make a request to their domain provider (Godaddy) for transfer of the domain to another web hosting company. Also it was revealed that, the domain was being transferred by Ali Ferank to a Dubai based web hosting company. But Aibek was yet confused, whether his domain was expired and immediately purchased by some one or it was a case of hijacking.
The actual hassle began when the hacker mentioned about the domain hijacking and demanded a huge ransom. The mail that the hackers sent to Aibek reads:
Hi there,
I said it very simply and very easily !
2 K !
Deal or not ?!
You own the domain I get the money…Regards
Ultimately Aibek got his domain back as he owned it legally, but the point that Aibek explains now will scare you.. He says, the hackers somehow managed to get access to his Gmail account that was linked with Godaddy, and set it such that all incoming mails with certain keywords or from Godaddy were forwarded to their inbox leaving no trace on the primary mail id. And ultimately they requested Godaddy to get the domain transferred by authenticating the request from the hacked Gmail id. Though Albek is not yet sure whether the hackers really used his Gmail id.
Let me also tell you, this is not the first time that a G-mail flaw was exploited. Exactly a year ago, another popular blog – Davidairey too, was trapped under a similar circumstance, wherein the hackers got access to the owner’s Gmail account and used the same method to hack down his domain. Details about it is here.
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p align=”justify”>Well, we are here not to make you scared, our intention is just to aware you that, your Gmail account too may be hacked or misused to gain access to all your important information and data..
So its a high time to ensure that your mail account is never being shared with anyone and you regularly keep on checking all filters, settings, and forwardings.
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