Hotmail accounts hacked and passwords posted online
By Paul Smith
If you’re still using Hotmail for all your email needs, now would be a really, really good time to change your password. In fact stop reading this and change it now. And your security question. And wear a hat.
Microsoft is investigating claims that over 10,000 Hotmail accounts have been hacked and had their passwords posted online. Tech blog neowin.net claims to have seen a list posted in a developer’s forum last week, listing thousands of accounts alphabetically listed from A through to B, which suggests it was only a fragment of a much larger database. The site “confirms the list is genuine and most [accounts] appear to be based in Europe.”
If you have a Hotmail account then you’d be wise to change your details immediately. Even a secondary or dormant account should be updated, in case you’ve used the address as a back-up to your primary email account or to register for other online services.
Posted in News, Personal privacy, tech October 5th, 2009 | 27 Comments
feral trolley of the week
Bitter Wallet – the pro Apple anti Microsoft website.
Anyone could of got that list from anywhere.
Hey even I could pull those details from a database where I work.
Thanks! I loged on earlier and saw a delivery failure – mine has been hacked an advertising emails sent to friends.
*logged *and
Bitter Wallet don’t seem that anti-Microsoft, although they must have sense if they prefer Apple! =P
I think the point is, someone’s in trouble for posting them. Many many people have access to information like this, so someone has gone and buggered it up for a portion of us!
Is that why I’m locked out of MSN Messenger then?
Bitter Wallet – the pro Apple anti Microsoft website.
Anyone could of got that list from anywhere.
Hey even I could pull those details from a database where I work.
This isn’t about Apple in any way, its about how poor hotmail is (and has always been), its incredible that people instantly see this as Apple vs Microsoft when at a stretch its closer to Gmail vs Hotmail. Sad apologists.
@ David….
No, its because you surf the internet for porn/and or download cracks/keygens….and have inevitably gotten your account stolen by one of the many different password stealing trojans that accompanies such content.
@ David
You discust me getting trojans from downloading pictures of naked children no doubt
yahoo all the way!!
@A concerned citizen
Yeah, David’s OBVIOUSLY into kiddie porn. Let’s construct a giant man, made of wicker, and imprison him in it while we burn him to death!!!
You fucking retarded bag of puce.
Just goes to show that there will always be people out there that are looking for short cuts in life. Stealing online identities and intellectual property seems to be a part of the internet that scares people away.
Hopefully the clever people that mean well are always one step ahead of these free loaders.
In defense of Hotmail, I have read that this was a phishing attack and it is the silly people who fell for the attack that have had their details posted. On two occasions I have received emails from friends on my MSN messenger (who are obviously gullible) suggesting I go to a website and check who has deleted or blocked me from messenger. When you go to this site, it asks you to type in your hotmail details and then guess what happens next? The same and the same and the same. If folk were a bit more switched on and not so curious these attackers wouldn’t get the best of us. This one has been more effective in my opinion because it involves email. Phishing happens to bank accounts all the time but people are maybe more suspicious.
You can check out the site yourself if curious…. just don’t enter your details!
http://7eavzq.query-block-status.com
Maybe the Microsoft Police can track the site owner down and kill them?
Sid – yes you’re correct. This is how they’re all getting ‘hacked’ (please stop using that word BW and others, it makes you sound like morons).
Plain and simple all out stupidity.
Although, there are hundreds of these MSN phishing sites up, and I guarantee they will never be able to trace the owners.
Paul,
Can you make it clearer that this was not a hotmail ‘hack’. 10000 muppets put their username and password into something like msn-block.com to try and stalk their girlfriends and see if she had blocked them.
These people are idiots, and deserve everything they get. The publicity is unfair on microsoft – the system was not hacked, and if you haven’t put your details into 3rd party sites, you are safe.
Taking a look at the daily mail comments page sums up how idiotic these people are.
My favourites are:
“Don’t use insecure mail use apple or google”
and
“I used to use hotmail and changed to Opera and now I am secure”
I totally agree, i have been using Hotmail for a number of years with no issues at all. Any spam or junk i report as such everytime and it keeps my email inbox pretty free of rubbish. If you are going to give you username and password out via a phishing email then it doesnt matter what email account you are using, you will fall to the same fate.
When will people realise usernames and passwords are not something you ever give out or type into an external web site.
read article clearly:
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/10/05/thousands-of-hotmail-passwords-leaked-online
due to phishing site – not MS directly as you make it look!
misleading article – update or wipe!
Just goes to show that BW is just a complete and utter MS bashing Apple fanboy wankfest tbh. But then nobody accused BW of accurately reporting the news anyway
I love hacking into morons account and stealing the info then selling it on for a huge profit and then changing their passwords as well just for the hell of it! I cant help it, i can so i do!
Ive hacked into 5 peoples accounts already today (my record is 12 in 1 day).
Anyway must dash i have more accounts to hack into to see if i can break my record.
And for the record David is into to kiddie porn and thats a fact
@jim – obvious troll is obvious
Just hacked into another 1. Whos ya daddy!!!!!!!
@Jim – this is where the jokes about your mother, and none of us having a clue, start to appear…
Do what Jeff?
Im sorry son, im just not getting you!
We ran the story pretty early yesterday – we were one of the first sites onto it. At the time nobody seemed sure whether it was a hack or a phishing scam. We’ve got an official statement from Microsoft going up soon so cool your jets, kids.
[...] we told you about security issues with Hotmail, after 10,000 account names and passwords appeared in a developer forum. At the time it was unclear [...]
It isn’t as a result of phishing – my account has been hacked and used to send an advertising email to a load of email addresses I don’t recognise (thankfully it doesn’t seem to have gone to any of my actual contacts) and I have never (and I mean NEVER) entered my password into any websites. I’m not that stupid!!
[...] complex keyword-logging malware to compromise some email accounts. Acunetix has been combing through the original list of 10,000 Hotmail accounts and passwords that appeared on Monday. It seems that despite all the warnings, plenty of people don’t have [...]