I am Jamil Ahmed from Aden, Yemen and a native of Pakistan. I studied computers in Yemen for a few months, back in 2006. A strange thing happened during my study there. I would like to share the experience with you on how I managed to figure things out.
I studied computer at a near by computer center and the lab instructor often amazed me by hacking into my email every time. I tried all possible tricks I could. I changed the password once a week, used the most complicated password, never typed in front of him, checked the computer for key logger as per my friend’s advice etc. Nothing could stop my instructor from hacking into my email even when the password was new.
I was wondering what to do. I was almost sure that somehow he was managing to spy on the computer that I was using. But how was it possible? It’s not a virus; it’s not a Trojan, its not any remote screen capturing system as I checked the computer meticulously.
Then one of my friends told me it’s because you are using the school network. Your instructor is sniffing the networking packets and finding out the password. I decided to have a check on the same. I asked my friend to start an email address for me from Pakistan. I never tried to open the email from the school network. To our expectation, he was not able to find the password for that address.
Few months later on a casual chat with my instructor, he admitted that it was indeed a network packet-sniffing program. I forgot the name of the software, but through that he was able to monitor each and every conversation that we had from lab. He was given specific instruction by the principal to monitor this due to security constrains. He installed the software in the school proxy server and managed to hack into all the school computers.
Ever since then, I am very cautious in using any school or office network for personal use.
Written by : Jamil Ahmed, Yemen
Date: December 14, 2008
Payment status : Paid via paypal on December 18, 2008
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