PC IMPORTANT HOTMAIL NEWS

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Today a hack was discovered that allows people to read email from Hotmail. Read the news story: http://www.techtv.com/news/hackingandsecurity/story/0,24195,3343347,00.html

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Answers

http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/2001/08/21/hotmail.html

Microsoft plugs latest Hotmail hole

By Reuters, 08/21/2001

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) announced on Tuesday that it has fixed a security hole in its free Web-based Hotmail email service that could have exposed customer emails.

The fix was completed on Monday, less than 12 hours after the company learned of the problem, which was reported on the Web site of a hacker group called Root Core, a Microsoft spokesperson said.

None of the more than 110 million Hotmail users were affected, mostly because it would take some relatively unusual circumstances to exploit the hole, the company said in a statement.

For example, a malicious hacker would need to have control over a Hotmail customer's user session with the server, know the exact second a target email arrived, and know the unique message ID number for the email, the company said.

"A malicious hacker would have to conduct thousands, if not tens of thousands, of attempts before they could hit on a valid message ID, and even that would only give them a portion of the information they would need to fully exploit this issue," the statement said.

Hotmail has had its share of security problems, having to fix a host of glitches and holes last year. Earlier this summer, Hotmail users were exposed to a hole that would allow a worm to get into their accounts.

Worms, self-propagating malicious programs, can clog up networks by spreading through email systems, such as last year's "I Love You" worm and the recent Code Red I, and leave "backdoors" and cause other havoc to computers, like Code Red II.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001


Geezie-wow...I didn't know about that "hole" in hotmail last yr. I just got my acct in June...and only use the addy for things I don't want to give my addy to.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

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