You've Been Hacked - Third Place

Answers by Dominick Sardina

1. Megs account was either hijacked through AOL's Merlin database hack (Merlin runs on AOLs internal network),

where it send AIM users a file to download and install, so a malicious hacker can take over her machine,

or

it was hijacked through a remote buffer overflow, and it drops a remote access Trojan on her machine,

called AOLThief or AimThief, in which her machine was being sniffed and had a phony certificate that cause a loop back issue.

It wasn't a valid AOL Certificate, so Toms machine couldn't recognize it.

2. To secure they aim chat in the future they can use: SecureIM, AimEncrypt or SimpleLite for AIM

3. AOL's Merlin Internal database was compromised and or Megs Win2k laptop was the computer being hijacked and sniffed.

and Report to TOS and AOL security/AOL SecOps. -

Also Run and update the latest virus defintions for there Anti-Virus Program and,

download a trojan cleaner like TheCleaner from moosoft.com.

Thanks Again for including my e-mail for this contest.

Take Care