Microsoft confirms Hotmail password theft

The internet is an unsafe place by nature, and has been demonstrated in different ways. Many sites have been attacked by those who seek to endanger their safety for some reason that may or may not be related to that site. Usually, social networks like Facebook and services like Twitter are often high profile targets for crackers with very few scruples, but this time the service has been infringed Windows Live Hotmail, the Microsoft e-mail. According to the report which confirms the fact, would have stolen the passwords of several thousands of email accounts, in what would be a major phishing attacks has been seen to date.


During the day yesterday emerged in the network the alarming news that the safety of over ten thousand mail accounts Windows Live Hotmail would have been compromised due to a phishing attack. Phishing has different ways to express themselves, but one of the most common is the creation of a replica of the home page of a mail service, through which users try to enter without realizing that this is a fake site. Simply enter the email address, password, and press the button to enter, these data are automatically collected to complete a list that can contain a huge number of addresses "kidnapped" along with their passwords.


At first there was speculation that someone had managed to hack the main portal to Windows Live Mail, but Microsoft has denied this outright. There has been no breach of security at the actual site of Hotmail, which would confirm the theory of phishing campaign against Microsoft's service. While it is within the margin of success by phishers, the situation appears more serious. Apparently only a fraction of the list containing email addresses beginning with the letters a and b. Hotmail has 500 million users, so that a base of ten thousand accounts does not appear to be somewhat too broad, but if the list extends to other letters of the alphabet, we would be talking about over a hundred thousand mail accounts compromised.

Fortunately, this is easy to solve for the average user. You only need to enter your Hotmail account and change the password. Now that has been exposed, the mastermind behind this action should take it more in stride, knowing that many of the stolen passwords will no longer be useful in the coming days. Another extra in the way that can protect users is looking version of the page with enhanced security. In that case, use the HTTPS protocol and the connection is at least somewhat safer. If you visit the Hotmail site, you will see access to the bottom of the box for the password. Get used to using it, there's nothing wrong with that.