Thousands of Hotmail passwords leaked online

[thecoolest]

Update - there are now 20,000 accounts affected and non-Hotmail addresses.

Neowin has received information regarding a possible Windows Live Hotmail "hack" or phishing scheme where password details of thousands of Hotmail accounts have been posted online.

An anonymous user posted details of the accounts on October 1 at pastebin.com, a site commonly used by developers to share code snippets. The details have since been removed but Neowin has seen part of the list posted and can confirm the accounts are genuine and most appear to be based in Europe. The list details over 10,000 accounts starting from A through to B, suggesting there could be additional lists. Currently it appears only accounts used to access Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail have been posted, this includes @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com accounts.

Neowin has reported this immediately to Microsoft's Security Response Center and to Microsoft's PR teams in the UK and US and we are currently awaiting feedback on the situation. As this is a breaking story please check back frequently as the story will be updated as soon as more information becomes available.

If you are a Windows Live Hotmail user Neowin recommends that you change your password and security question immediately.

Thanks to Chris for the news tip

Update: According to BBC News, Microsoft is currently "investigating the situation and will take appropriate steps as rapidly as possible."

Update 2: Microsoft has now fully confirmed our reports. According to a Microsoft spokesperson "over the weekend Microsoft learned that several thousand Windows Live Hotmail customer's credentials were exposed on a third-party site due to a likely phishing scheme. Upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation to determine the impact to customers. As part of that investigation, we determined that this was not a breach of internal Microsoft data and initiated our standard process of working to help customers regain control of their accounts."

More info

BBC NEWS | Technology | Phishing attack targets Hotmail
Update: Phishing scheme affecting some Hotmail customers - Windows Live

[SealLion]

figures.......

HotMail is junk anyways.

even though. It's pretty lame-ass-stupid to do such a thing. What does such a person get out of phishing and then posting hacked passwords from private citizens with no connection at all to the guy who does this??


A bigger ego, I guess.

[slikrapid]

What does such a person get out of phishing and then posting hacked passwords from private citizens with no connection at all to the guy who does this??

A bigger ego, I guess.

could be revenge from competition (hotmail's or M$'s or phisher's) making some kind of statement:

Hotmail is currently the largest web-based e-mail service.

[SealLion]

a statement of what though??

If that would indeed be such a case.

a statement that hotmail is in a run for it's money or something??

IDK, slik.....I think maybe it was just some punk-kid with nothing better on his mind to do.

I mean....I also look at it this way:

Some punk gets his greasy hands on everybody's passcode for hotmail.
People start using these accounts to send spam and what-ever else they can think of.
Send emails to all thier enemies and so on....

and in the case of hotmail's competition having a message sent out to them by thier competitors. That is not very professional for any email competitor. Unless the email competitor had some less than mature individual working for them that just seems to have this unusual zeal for killing his company's competitor.

And if it was for revenge...well then, IDK wh;at to think, then.

The same as above I guess.

[thecoolest]

Seal lion as u can think but 1ce u use hotmail..& its services..u forget abt most of all..i know all yahoo/gmail all have diffrent features which makes them best in their own status & style...

thats how.. hotmail is kinda grt too trust me..& abt hotmail hacking password. microsoft is finding things abt it..(as all know which it cant find it sooner)have to wait & watch for the result of it

True silkrapid hotmail is kinda become no.1 soon if site's features working to be upgrade with help of yahoo! as of some ppl dont know but hotmail & yahoo are connected 100% which makes them to maker mail faster & also some of the best email companies of the world..as i think

[anon]

Seal lion as u can think but 1ce u use hotmail..& its services..u forget abt most of all..

I have a Hotmail account, but I rarely use it - I mean, there were times were it didn't work at all with Opera. The capacity may be high, but some of you will remember the pre-GMail era when they gave you a mere 2MB (which where possible to increase by changing the post code or something in your profile).

I have been using FastMail since last year. The free service is quite limited and they only offer 10MB of space, but it just works for me and I rarely send/receive e-mail anyway.

[thecoolest]

yup true anon but as i think hotmail now have alot diffrent in last 1 year...there u got skydrive u can share with ur spl frns spl things without being notice to any1..it gives u 25 gb space online i also sent a game to my frn via skydrive(new zuma)it has some grt features...some social sites..news things all r kinda new if u surf into msn you will understand that thing