hotmail

Users of Hotmail and Yahoo Mail have had targeted attacks aimed at them similar to the attacks Google says have been directed at U.S. officials, political activists, and journalists who use Gmail, according to Trend Micro.

Google said earlier this week that it had disrupted a targeted phishing campaign against Gmail users that appeared to originate in China. The attackers were trying to monitor e-mails and use stolen passwords to change the settings in the accounts so that e-mails would be forwarded to their own accounts, Google said.

China has denied any responsibility and claims the U.S. is … Read more

Facebook has fixed a bug in the site's password reset feature that could have been exploited to expose passwords of a small number of users who also use Hotmail.

"We can access password of any facebook user who uses hotmail email address as their facebook account," Turkish security researcher Serkan Gencel, wrote in an e-mail to CNET this weekend. "If you have any hotmail account and if it is used as facebook account, we can change and send you your new password:)."

A Facebook spokesman released a statement today confirming the bug and saying it … Read more

On today's show, I tee off a little bit on Internet haters who just can't let it go ... in a way that might seem to suggest I can't let it go. Hm. Anyway, in tech news proper, Apple shareholders demand a succession plan, Verizon users demand their iPhone 4s, and AT&T demands $499 and a two-year contract for people who want an Atrix 4G with the laptop dock. Plus: Computer Love! Aloha, everyone! --Molly

Microsoft knows you're making throwaway e-mail accounts, and wants to make that process easier.

Today, Hotmail is getting a new feature aimed at "e-mail enthusiasts," which lets anyone create multiple e-mail accounts that can be read, replied to, and managed from their everyday e-mail inbox. These additional e-mail addresses can be had in the same manner as signing up for new accounts, but they require no extra log-ins or upkeep.

The idea is to give users a safe way to provide third parties with an e-mail address, without giving up the address they've provided to family … Read more

A service bug that left a group of Windows Live Hotmail users without access to new messages and entire folders for days has been explained and remedied against future instances.

Writing on the Windows Team Blog, Mike Schackwitz of the Hotmail team says the problem stemmed from an error with an automated script that Microsoft uses to test the service for errors in every day usage. Part of the script's function is to clean its tracks once it's done creating test accounts, but this time around the testing jumped the test group and went to real user accounts. … Read more

A bug that made e-mails and folders go missing for some Windows Live Hotmail users has been fixed according to Microsoft.

"We have identified the source of the issue (and) have restored e=mail access to those who were affected," the company said on the Windows Live Solution Center help site yesterday afternoon. "We recognize that even though we restored e-mail access, some of the affected users did not receive mail sent to them during the last 24 to 72 hours."

Microsoft says the issue was fixed early this morning, although if users are still having … Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook suffered a brief outage yesterday but came back up with new photo features

Apple announces that the Mac Store with apps for Macs will launch on January 6

Yahoo layoffs will apparently result in the shutting down of several Yahoo services

The European Union is deepening its investigation into anti-competitive practices by Google

New Google Maps for Mobile on Android comes with 3D and allows for offline directions

An update to Hotmail lets you surf certain Web sites right inside your e-mail

An official PlayStation app is coming soon for Android and … Read more

Hotmail is rolling out a new platform this morning called Active Views that lets users surf through certain Web sites from inside of e-mail messages.

But it's not just any message where this functionality is enabled. Instead, Microsoft has partnered with specific companies as part of the launch to give users a way to do common tasks like searching and account management. Some of the first ones on that list are Orbitz and Monster.com, with Netflix and LinkedIn soon to follow.

When a Hotmail user gets an e-mail from one of these companies, they'll be able to … Read more

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

The Beatles are finally coming to Apple's iTunes

Facebook unveils its hyped-up e-mail system

Wal-Mart's Black Friday deals are leaked

Borders launches its redesigned site with discounts, shipping deals, and social networking

The Asus EEE tablet is delayed and will possibly have a new name

The world's first 3D heart surgery is set for today