help, can he hack me bec. he knows my IP?

[CW Jones]

O noes he can hack an iphone!!!! RUN he can get you!!!!

I really hope this thread was meant to be a joke. You don't have to be a genius to be able to find out someones IP address... nor there internet provider. The kid is probably about 12 and is just messing with you. Trying to act all tough and cool. Really mess with his head, tell him you work for the government and have his IP.

 

[UltraNEO*]

I was just talking to this one guy on Yahoo messenger and he said he knows my IP address and my Main IP provider,that he did DOS Command.. something like that while talking to me. He said he can easily hack my computer and know private things about myself,infos,credit cards etc..Like for example I am shopping online, he said he could easily use the account.

What should I do now ? Should I change all my passwords ? I am scared.I am using Macbook Pro 15inch by the way if you need this info.. Pls.help.

Wait.. Think about this logically for a moment, why would someone try to hack you? When there are people and organizations out there, with mountains of sensitive data, billions of dollars held digitally, electronically switching power lines, water pumps etc...

Surely to a serious hacker, that would more fun? And more challenging? And carry more credit amongst actual hackers...


I dunno.. was reading a book about hacking, some of it's quite interesting but I suspect it's all highly illegal.

 

[mrsir2009]

No, they can't hack you. They can reveal a limited amount of info about you though, such as your approximate location, computer specs, name and a few other things.

 

[mbpcaliuser]

Sorry to bring this issue up again, but I was given a bvog link and I clicked it. Saw the Forbidden page, and I don't recall clicking anywhere on the page.

I did some research and found out that this site is a way for people to get other's ip address. First I wanted to know if anyone knows about bvog and how it steals people's ip address. Is it by just accessing the site or would one have to click on the page also?

Second question, well I guess this thread pretty much answered it. I really hope, if the other person has my ip address, that he can't hack my MBP and spill any important information about me.

 

[GGJstudios]

Sorry to bring this issue up again, but I was given a bvog link and I clicked it. Saw the Forbidden page, and I don't recall clicking anywhere on the page.

I did some research and found out that this site is a way for people to get other's ip address. First I wanted to know if anyone knows about bvog and how it steals people's ip address. Is it by just accessing the site or would one have to click on the page also?

Second question, well I guess this thread pretty much answered it. I really hope, if the other person has my ip address, that he can't hack my MBP and spill any important information about me.

Your IP address is visible to any website you visit. For example, go to www.whatismyipaddress.com. Don't worry about someone seeing your IP address.

 

[HussamRaed]

So we are all talking about hacks......

But the question is, how someone could really hack someones computer?

 

[mbpcaliuser]

Your IP address is visible to any website you visit. For example, go to www.whatismyipaddress.com. Don't worry about someone seeing your IP address.

Well I guess with the site that I went to, my ip address was emailed to the person who sent me the link.

 

[snaky69]

So we are all talking about hacks......

But the question is, how someone could really hack someones computer?

Usually one would have to grant access to the hacker, willingly or unwillingly, through the use of an exploit or loop in the operating system/browser. Perhaps even getting the user to install a program which is essentially a keylogger.

There was such an instance of this a few months back, where a website was able to phish into your safari cache for your autofill information(name, adress, etc.) Apparently Apple patched this.

But yeah, strictly knowing an IP address? I'm no expert, but I think it can be done, by a few individuals on this earth. Would they bother you? Doubt it, if they are able to do that, they have much bigger and interesting targets to go after, to a hacker, a single individual, unless he's the president of a country or huge company, is of no interest. Just like terrorists, they're after the big guys. Except they mostly do it for the bragging rights.

 

[killerrobot]

Tell him you've changed your IP to 127.0.0.1, and he should go ahead and try to hax0r all he wants.

<--- Oh noes, you've just given him my location. Arrgghh. Now I'm gonna be hacked.

 

[TheSmith1]

Usually one would have to grant access to the hacker, willingly or unwillingly, through the use of an exploit or loop in the operating system/browser. Perhaps even getting the user to install a program which is essentially a keylogger.

There was such an instance of this a few months back, where a website was able to phish into your safari cache for your autofill information(name, adress, etc.) Apparently Apple patched this.

But yeah, strictly knowing an IP address? I'm no expert, but I think it can be done, by a few individuals on this earth. Would they bother you? Doubt it, if they are able to do that, they have much bigger and interesting targets to go after, to a hacker, a single individual, unless he's the president of a country or huge company, is of no interest. Just like terrorists, they're after the big guys. Except they mostly do it for the bragging rights.

Hacking strictly by IP alone can be done but the odds of it actually happening are non-existent let alone being done by some random prepubescent internet e-thug. These types of hacks typically involve massive amounts of research and is done by whole groups of highly trained security researchers who are focused on looking at larger software services like database servers and web servers.

Then there is the issues of routers and firewalls. Do to the way NAT (network address translation) and state-full connection engines work in a router/firewalls just initiating a connection directly to your computer from the outside simply doesn't happen unless you have setup port forwarding. If you are the one who initiates a connection from behind your router/firewall by clicking on a malicious web page or connecting to a service that's another story. Simply put don't open links to random web pages from people you don't trust.

That said there are well known repositories of exploits against operating systems, web browsers, and other pieces of software. If you never update or patch your OS or software (mostly things like web browsers) its not terribly difficult compromise a computer if you can get a direct connection through a router/firewall. All you really have to do here is just keep up to date on your security patches. Most OSes and programs have automatic updates, do this. If by some remote sliver of a chance in hell a random e-thug is capable doing doing a zero day exploit (read discovering a previously unknown exploit) against a computer in light of everything above hes probably got better targets for his efforts.

In the end most of the time something gets hacked its usually through one of these means.
1. Social engineering and inadvertently revealing information that can be leveraged to a hackers advantage. Probing for answers to security questions is a prime example.
2. Bad passwords. Short and simple passwords that are reused everywhere are a common problem. Bad security questions to accounts are equally problematic.
3. Clicking links to malicious websites that install some kinda software or exploit vulnerabilities in unpatched OSes, web browsers, java, flash, active-x etc..