dawnoffawn

Hello,
I wanted to know if someone can get into a computer and see it's contents and pictures if that spying person sends an email to the targetted person, and if the targetted person replies to the email. Can this actually happen?
For example, if someone from a diffrent country sent an email to me (with the seeing all of my computer's content) and then I replied, will they be able to spy on my computer through my responding to their emails? Could this be possible if they had such a motive?
If yes, how? Can they do more than that? How can someone prevent this, if yes?

Daniel_

As I understand, this is only possible if you allow the first email to run an application or connect to a website in order to infect your computer with a malicious programme.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Jove

Yes. I will add to Daniel_P's statement and say if you are using a work computer, the system administrator can install software or keylogger hardware to see what you are typing and they may be able to access your email account from the mail server.

Are you paranoid yet?

Xerxys

^^ Also you forgot that if you stay on the house phone too long the "others" from the mother ship can track and find your location and beam mind controlling signals through it. The best way to prevent this is to take a regular baseball cap, line the inside with foil and wear it at all times. The foil will prevent any signals from coming in and deflect any alien signals as well. You can buy some of my already prepared caps* from my website for this very reason which also come with a complementary juice/beer/soda can holder for every two two that you purchase**.



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ASU2003

There is some info in the extended header
Support Center
How to read email headers

Next, it depends what, if any, software is running on your computer. If you are running it knowingly, or if it is covertly installed. There was that case where the school admins were spying on the kids through a hidden program (it might have been a web filtering program in the background, but the kids didn't start it up) that allowed them to connect to the webcam on the Macbooks.

Internet making it easier to become a terrorist - Los Angeles Times
This is an old trick by the terrorists, but it came up again last week where individuals used a shared account and only left the automatically saved draft e-mails for people to read. It becomes harder to trace because they never go from one server to another.

But that only gets you the senders current IP address. Unless you have a VNC (or a different remote desktop application) running, you probably are ok. The easy step to take is to disconnect your computer from the internet or shut it down when not in use. A little harder, yet still viable is to use Linux and keep the security updates up to date. But I was using Linux in college to remote into my desktop at my apartment from campus using VNC. But, you shouldn't really worry about that unless you have been running a lot of questionable (or illegally downloaded) programs. Or if someone else has used your computer that would be interested in watching what you are doing or getting your files.

One other thing is if you share your files on your home network, someone else near by can connect to your wireless network (security or not) and get your shared files.

And I have to recommend http://www.backtrack-linux.org/ to do that.