Hotmail steps up security and social network measures
Microsoft has revised Hotmail security measures to reduce the dangers of account hijacking. It’s also adding closer integration to Facebook and LinkedIn for Windows Live.
The security crackdown combined a clearout of suspected bogus accounts and improvements to make it easier to recover an account in future.
The clear out involved “less than one percent” of accounts, suspected of being taken over (for example by the type of criminal who then e-mails everyone on a contact list with a fake sob story asking for money). Users of the affected accounts were locked out of the account until they correctly answered a security question and then retrieved a code from the alternate e-mail address they supplied upon opening the Hotmail account.
Microsoft is also adding in two new ways for account holders to prove their identity beyond a security question and alternate address. Both involve registering a cellphone number with the company. One option is to request a new password be sent to the cellphone if a user suspects their account has been compromised. The other option is to tie the account to a particular computer. If the user then wants to access their account on another machine they can have a one-time-use password sent to the phone.
The company is also limiting the number of unsuccessful password attempts allowed before an account is locked, a move designed to reduce the chances of a dictionary-based/brute force attack succeeding.
The social networking changes include making it possible to see LinkedIn updates via MSN Messenger and to use Messenger to post to a LinkedIn account, both of which features were recently added to Outlook. The Windows Live homepage can also now display updates from Facebook and MySpace, which is presumably designed to make the page ‘stickier’ and thus boost ad revenues.
Other changes added this week include new limits on attaching photographs to e-mails (now 25MB per picture and 10GB total per message), and an automated link to shipping company websites when an appropriate tracking number appears in an e-mail.
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October 2nd, 2010
And in the process managed to erase millions of mails
http://windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx?forumid=13f7498b-e1df-413a-ad9f-119d8cb6ea24&page=639
October 11th, 2010
Better late than never! I’ve been fighting with a hacker/hijacker for 7+ mos. to get control back of my computer…even have evidence of how they are doing this thru Microsoft. Called FBI, MSN, even Homeland Security! Get nowhere & hung up on. They destroyed my life & are going to devast more…what do I do? If Microsoft wants some to know how they are doing this, call me.