Uh-oh, this is not good.  Mashable just reported today that 10,000 Hotmail accounts were compromised when the login credentials (email address and password) were posted on a website.  Only addresses beginning with A and B were listed, so this could indicate that there are more compiled lists awaiting publication.  Check out the article here.

If you have a Hotmail account, you need to change your password ASAP!  The fact that so many accounts were compromised reflects many of the dangers and pitfalls of cloud computing:

• Global access - whether you’re in the comfort of your own home or halfway across the world, you can login in anywhere
• What works with one account can be replicated across all accounts. In other words, if a bug is found with in the system, the entire system is compromised.

Since 40% of all online users use the same password for everything, this is a huge deal.  The 10,028 accounts were compromised using a phishing technique (phishing is when a user is duped into clicking on a fabricated email that appears legitimate but is not).

You can read about it on the BBC and through Microsoft’s own statement.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 7:26 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.