Hackers Routinely Sell E-Mail Passwords With Virtual Impunity, WaPo Reports

Think you're personal e-mail's secure? Think again.

Hackers can obtain virtually anyone's password, experts say, and the penalties for doing so, in the rare cases that are prosecuted, ordinarily provide little or no protection, according to the Washington Post.

Those who wish to obtain someone else's e-mail password can purchase it through a variety of online services that advertise openly on the Internet, the newspaper states.

"This is an important point that people haven't grasped," Peter Eckersley of the Electronic Frontier Foundation tells the Post. "We've been using e-mail for years, and it's been insecure all that time. . . . If you have any hacker who is competent and spends the time and targets you, he's going to get you."

Related earlier coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "Accused Record ID Theft Mastermind to Plead Guilty in 2 Earlier Cases, Feds Say"