Diana the Valkyrie's Guide to the Internet
A hard man is good to beat
On August 30, Microsoft took their Hotmail servers offline. Apparently, it was a security problem. Here's what Microsoft has to say about it. They claim they've fixed the problems now.
Since the problems are fixed, it's OK for me to publish them. Here's one way to find out people's passwords. I haven't tried it, and presumably Microsoft have fixed it. Or maybe it never worked in the first place, and he just made it all up.
If you want to know more about security holes in Hotmail, check out this list of articles. Most of the reports are of an old problem, fixed a year ago. There's a full coverage of the current story on Wiredand here.
Is this an important issue for web site members? Probably not. Most people wouldn't use Hotmail for anything important. I've thought of setting up a Hotmail-type email service for members, but then I ask myself, what's the point? There's already several such things, all free, all probably a lot better than the one I'd set up. So I haven't.