By  Robert Fox/London

 

Last week, I was in Limassol in Cyprus - allegedly - and had my passport, wallet and other essentials stolen.

I say allegedly because I was at my office in London. However, hundreds of contacts were being told of my distress via my Gmail account, suggesting they should pony up to help me get back to Britain.

Within minutes, the hackers were into a Yahoo! e-mail account - which I used to back up the Gmail account - and turned my identity inside out.

They not only changed my password but all my security details, so I can’t get into the account and I can’t close it. Those who replied to the distress call were told to e-mail via the Yahoo! account and asked to pay €500 into a bank account in Limassol. One person - a senior member of the Armed Forces - did, a man very knowledgeable about cyber-espionage.

They talk of the kindness of strangers. But most striking is the kindness of friends and colleagues, some from wars and hairy adventures decades ago, who offered help and asked of my wellbeing. They included two Army generals, bank managers, ambassadors, interpreters, and not least friends and colleagues at the Evening Standard , and my family, who quickly recognised the scam. I am grateful to them all. Truly, they are friends for life.

However, after two days spent trying to pick up the pieces, I have learned some tough lessons. As someone who writes about cyber-warfare and crime, perhaps I should have known better.

First, the Apple system of computers is not immune - new spyware called Keylogger must be purged on a regular basis. Second, if you have an e-mail account with Yahoo! and the like, and it is stolen, you cannot get it back.

Last weekend, I added the Gmail app to my phone and iPad and it attracted weird correspondents, among whom I suspect were the hackers of Limassol, who seemed to be based in Germany.

We admired the first cyber anti-heroine of literature, Lisbeth Salander, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but my hackers did exactly what she did; setting up a “mirror” e-mail site by appropriating my name and account and set about siphoning funds from friends.

We talk about this a lot, but we are ineffective at tackling it. The big operators like Google and Yahoo! are less than responsible and transparent - to get my Google account fixed I had to employ a contractor who now has a lot of personal details.

Government, commerce, and individuals must act. Watch every-thing going in and out of your electronic mailboxes, by the day and hour if need be.

You have been warned.- London Evening Standard

 

♦ Robert Fox is defence correspondent for London Evening Standard