Hack Outlook Passwords in 10 Seconds Flat

What !!!???!!!

That’s right. I hate to tell you folks, but if you give me 10 seconds alone with your computer I’ll not only get your user name and passwords to every mail box you have set up in Outlook and Outlook Express, but I’ll also be able to see every single login you have saved in your Internet Explorer auto-complete settings.

And I’ll do it all with this tiny little application. Don’t believe it? Fine, download it, unzip it and launch it. You’ll be instantly staring at all of the passwords you’ve ever told Microsoft to remember for you.

If that doesn’t make you paranoid… well, you just aren’t alive. So, what can you do about it?

1. Take my previously advice of using RoboForm to remember all your passwords.
2. Don’t ever, ever, ever allow Internet Explorer to save a password. You also can’t allow Outlook to save a password.
3. Immediately download and use a system cleaning utility to erase all of that data. Use one (or more) of the following tools to automatically erase your stored passwords. And by the way, all three of these offer Secure File Deletion, which makes the deletions unrecoverable:

• Clean Cache
• CCleaner
• Privacy Eraser

After you delete all of that stuff, you’re going to notice that Web sites which you used to go that recognized you don’t anymore. This is because the cookies have been deleted. Also, any of your saved passwords are gone, and that might make things a little less convenient.

1. Strengthen all of your passwords!
2. Switch to FireFox or Opera as your main Web browser.
3. Switch to Thunderbird for mail reading.

I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record to my regular readers when it comes to security paranoia, but I’d rather you be safe than sorry.