S@H accounts - Warning to those with Hotmail accounts!

[Assimilator1]

Don't post your SETI email add in the public forums!

If your Hotmail account should become inactive then someone else could use(take) your email add & then request the password from SETI to hijack your SETI account!:Q.

Now we're not sure if this is what actually happened with BoF Team BnT but its a distinct possibilty ,another way is if your SETI account name & email address have the same name.
e.g. J.Bloggs - Team AnandTech ,with an email of J.Bloggs@hotmail.com

Myself & Greg have just tested this flaw with an old hotmail account of mine I haven't used in over a year or more.
I gave Greg just the account name ,nothing more & he was able to take it over!
Now I'm somewhat surprised that you don't need a password to access the email account in the 1st place,but there you have it!😕

Any other email adds suseptable to this?

 

[Smoke]

I am writing each and every one of our SETI members that use the free email services for their Seti Account warning them of the situation.

All TeAm AnandTech DC Members please take notice. If you are using a "free email service" like hotmail, yahoo, etc. your account is subject to being HIJACKED if you use the same DC NAME in your email address.

Take steps to fix this immediately!

 

[Wolfsraider]

I use lycos as well but they are pretty strict about wrong passwords...should I be worried?

mike

 

[BofRA]

Originally posted by: Wolfsraider
I use lycos as well but they are pretty strict about wrong passwords...should I be worried?

mike

The problem isn't the wrong password. If the account becomes inactive and is deleted. Then anyone can create a "new" account using the same name.

 

[Assimilator1]

Yep, & no password is needed intially

 

[Ken g6]

Basically, if you just use your account periodically (e.g. once a month) this won't be a problem.

It's not that it's so hard to remember; it's just so easy to forget! 🙂

 

[olds]

I received an email asking me to log in to here.
But, I use my free email account everyday.

 

[sduguid]

It looks like your email session timed out - basically, you logged in but then didn't use it for a certain period of time. Then, when you went to use it again, it wanted to verify that you were who you say you are.

This isn't a hijack attempt or bad behaviour...

<edit> i seem to have missed the part where you said you received an email asking you to do it....that seems very suspicious.

 

[Smoke]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
I received an email asking me to log in to here.
But, I use my free email account everyday.

That looks very suspicious to me ... I wouldn't click it.

BTW, oldsmoboat, you should have received an email from me ... check it out and let me know if it got through. I'm a little concerned my message may be blocked by SPAM filters. 😉 🙂

 

[Spacehead]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
I received an email asking me to log in to here.

Smoke, think it would be a good idea to let the powers that be at SETI know about that? Probably not much they could do about it but at least they'd be aware of it.

 

[Wolfsraider]

ah ok I understand, and that is actually scarier.lycos has a 90 day time slot, I went over it once but luckily it never registered that it went over just had a 118 emails to clear out.

I use 12 different email addresses as my spam filters lol so maybe I will use one that has a more secure (in other words no time restrictions as long as I pay for the servers lol)

I have a 1000 email addresses If some one needs one thats good for about 2 years and a few that are good for 3 years.

lmk and i will set one up

Mike

 

[Smoke]

Originally posted by: Spacehead

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
I received an email asking me to log in to here.

Smoke, think it would be a good idea to let the powers that be at SETI know about that? Probably not much they could do about it but at least they'd be aware of it.

Done! 😉

 

[Wolfsraider]

Originally posted by: Smoke

Originally posted by: Spacehead

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
I received an email asking me to log in to here.

Smoke, think it would be a good idea to let the powers that be at SETI know about that? Probably not much they could do about it but at least they'd be aware of it.

Done! 😉

Go Greg!!!! 😛