Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

rgonzruiz — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:56:48 GMT

Exactly the same misfortune happened to me on early 2001 with my hotmail account... At that time I already had my account associated with some MSN Premium services and it took me a couple of weeks to prove my identity and ownership of the account to the hotmail customer support team... I even created a @msn.com account in the mean time to be able to chat in msn and stuff... The hacker had even changed my account's language to swedish or something like that, so when I was able to log in again, no only had I lost everything just like Omar, but also I had no idea where the menus for changing any settings where :DDDD

I use strong passwords since, as well as not-so-easy security Q&A's...

But ever since, once in a while I come to think of how dependent one becomes with their email addresses... I use my hotmail and gmail accounts for so many services (from my company's MS Partnership login and stuff to payment gateways linked to my gmail or hotmail accounts), that, although it would not be difficult to prove my ownership, it would certainly be a mess to lose for a couple of days...

Its no fun at all knowing that even now there are still security holes that allow for this to happen in the Windows Live services, and even scarier knowing that forever there will be a never-ending battle between the IT and the hackers worlds, and that once in a while you might end up as collateral...

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

CalumJR — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:32:54 GMT

This is very shocking. I would have thought the program manager of WLHotmail would have been more secure with his password and secret question. I would have also thought he would have backed up his contacts and exported them. And also his emails, if there is a way?

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

JonT — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:32:04 GMT

Also I just realised how bad this could be, with the email linking feature the attacker could then access all your linked accounts too.

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

JonT — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:23:36 GMT

ouch, thats harsh. Funny this story should come up on the same night i find a password reset email in my inbox.

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

kenbw2 — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:05:41 GMT

I feel sorry for the guy. However, if these things were important then shouldn't he have backed it all up? Even in WLMail or something...

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

WyzyrdMyrrlyn — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:30:40 GMT

i bet it was some determined hacker who just HAD to do that. the lead hotmail program manager's email, compromised. thats going to send a message....

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

BV2312 — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:14:46 GMT

No rollback? I think Hotmail should implement just incase you delete something or someone else deletes something for you

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

Alex — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:33:58 GMT

Ouch. O, the irony.

Now I'm wondering what his password or secret question was...

re: Hotmail Lead Program Manager's email compromised

Mephiles — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:21:18 GMT

I think it's sick that someone would actually want to do that! Omar would be feeling horrified right now.