A keylogger is a program or piece of hardware that records all keyboard keystrokes to an encrypted file which can then be read later. Based on the order of the keystrokes, it is usually easy to identify the password(s) from the file later.

a hoax (meaning a fraud: something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage.) If you see a newsgroup post or web page with something like the following, it is a hoax and will not work.

A hybrid attack will add numbers or symbols to the filename to successfully crack a password. Many people change their passwords by simply adding a number to the end of their current password.

Many people want to find software to perform a brute-force attack. This is really impractical. It would take hundreds of thousands of years to attempt any kind of reasonable brute-force attack on AOL®, Yahoo® or Hotmail®

Social engineering is the name given to the art of attacking the person, rather than the computer or system. The basic principle is that many people can be talked into giving someone else their id and password if they think it is someone that they can trust.

Most browsers, including Internet Explorer® and Netscape®, the AOL® client, and Windows® Dial-Up Connections allow you the option to store passwords.

If two people do not share the same computer, but do share the same network, it may be possible for one to sniff the others' packets as they sign-on.

SQL injection is a technique to maliciously exploit applications that use client-supplied data in SQL statements. Attackers trick the SQL engine into executing unintended commands by supplying specially crafted string input, thereby gaining unauthorized access to a database in order to view or manipulate restricted data.