MICROSOFT HOTMAIL SERVERS HAVE POSSIBLE BEEN HACKED - YOU HOTMAIL ACCOUNT IS IN DANGER | ArticlesBase.com

<p><strong>Microsoft Hotmail has possible been hacked</strong></p> <p>The Holy Grail amongst hackers â€" Microsoft Hotmail may have been hacked recently. The evidence was posted on an online forum October 1st 2009. Hotmail is currently the largest web-based e-mail service.</p> <p><strong>The passwords to 10 028 Hotmail accounts listed form A to B were posted on an online forum used by software developers on October 1st 2009.<br /></strong><br />Microsoft said it was investigating this incident and has not yet offered any official statement about what has happened.<br /><br />"We're actively investigating the situation and will take appropriate steps as rapidly as possible," a spokesperson said.<br /><br />The list was posted on Friday at pastebin.com but has since been taken away from the forum.<br /><br />Parts of the list has been verified and the accounts on the list appeared to be genuine and mostly from Europe.<br /><br />The list detailed accounts starting from A through B, indicating there are more accounts been compromised.<br /><br />Further exacerbating the threat is the fact that many people use the same log-on information for Hotmail and other online resources offered by Microsoft, which could expose sensitive information. <br /><br />Security experts recommend Hotmail users to change their password and security section immediately.</p> <p>Microsoft has confirmed that Hotmail have been compromised in a phishing attack. However, some security experts do not believe this is the case, because there has been very few emails lately pretending being from Microsoft, asking for users to confirm their IDs and passwords. This leads them to believe that Microsoft has been hacked, and that the Hotmail server could have been compromised.</p> <p>Security experts do not believe it is an inside job, as personnel would not know both the ID and password to be able to construct this list.</p> <p>Another hacking method - phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing details such as bank accounts or login names. However, the systematic way this list has been made public, suggest this is not an attack of this kind.</p> <p>The most plausible cause of this list being made public, is that the Microsoft Server has been attacked and compromised and tapped for vital information which has been decrypted and made public.</p> <p>The list included details of Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail accounts with email addresses ending hotmail.com, msn.com and live.com.</p> <p>Most security experts deem this to be a hi-tech cyber crime and not done by someone accidently getting into the server, as these servers are assumed to be the Holy Grail amongst hackers due to its security systems.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p><strong>About the Author:</strong><br /><p>He has a background as civil engineer and geoscientist. He has worked mainly within the oil and gas industry from the mid 1980s. He has written a few fictional novels as well as being the author of some professional litterature within oil and gas sector, he is now an editor of some web sites.</p>