Thats an interesting article travelship, thanks for posting.
Its a story that proves that Some of these weak @ss processes of "forgot your password" are not safe! Would use a strong password in these as well when they must be used. If its not a requirement, won't use them at all. One can make a super strong password and leave oneself open for hijacks b/c of the "forgot your password" questions. Why isn't it better explained that even these should not be weak or relate-able. And of course there user agreement limits any liability for most people... depends on where one lives, which is weird, why is the same company less liable to someone in say FL than to one who lives in NY.
Apparently, this attacker used nothing special, no special software, no special password cracking, he just did a little research about her and walla, nailed the "secret" question. It can be done that easy... too easy IMHO.
And the White-night in this story... Well he tried to do the right thing, just a small error on his part... he left the new password he created to stop the invasions in the screenshot he reposted showing everyone what it was!
Wonder if the Secret Service, FBI, CIA, NSA, DOD, FCC, etc, even need the use of outside organizations/companies to track down hackers. What if they already have all this info using there own equipment. Read that all the worlds internet traffic is routed thru 7 Super Computers. Would think they don't need anybodies help, why wouldn't they be able to see all. Sure there was something in the Patriot Act that gives them the right to access all internet traffic on there own systems.
If the 7 super computers thing is true, who owns them? Who actually owns the gateways of the internet? Who are the Gate keepers?
Think about all the contacts in the account, they all have to change there email address and pass that along to everyone they know, and so on. It didn't just affect her, but everyone she had as a contact & everyone she received an email from or emailed to that wasn't in her contact book.
Like SpiritOne said, these guys do cause a lot of havoc and hardship for some. It is a shame they don't use there skills in a more productive way. Reminds me of that movie "Catch me if you can" where Leo DiCaprio plays a Check Counterfeiter who eventually gets caught and is given the option to use his skills to fight check counterfeiting for the FBI. He reluctantly agrees and seems to then fall into place and accepts his fate.
Then again, sure the anti-virus and PC security companies love 'em though. The PC Security Industry is a Multi-billion dollar business. Heres a story just about what the US Gov wants to spend on Securing there PC's, and this may not include all of them. According to this story, the US Gov will spend more on Protecting its network than all the world does... including all other Countries, personal users & businesses combined.
Federal Government To Spend $30 Billion On New Security Efforts - Security Blog - InformationWeek