2006-07-02 00:27:30 · 2 answers · asked by gery_blake 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
one common way is to use a "packet sniffer" to intercept and read the traffic on the network being used to send the email
2006-07-02 00:34:29 · answer #1 · answered by Ivanhoe Fats 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you send email via Yahoo or via a email-client like Outlook, the client connects to port 25 on the destination/relay server and sends the email-data; However the individual packets of email data have to move from your home pc across the internet (various big ISP's) and finally reach the destination.
Anyone running a packet sniffer on the ISP's or someone who has connected a un-authorised PC on to the same channel on which your data is being sent has access to your data and can read it of the wire. Tools like snort, tcpdump, snoop, windump etc make this task very easy.
The solution is to encrypt email so that only the destination can decode your message.
2006-07-02 07:45:57 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋