Check your webmail accounts

Posted by | 10/08/2009 | 5 Comments

Just this morning, I’ve had to deal with one hacked webmail account, received word of another, and heard from a trusted source that a security-oriented agency held impromptu meetings about webmail passwords today. Not saying that adds up to something big, but there’s a little too much coincidence here for me to dismiss.

The problem in the two cases I know of involve emails being sent out to everyone in the users’ address book. I don’t keep contacts in my webmail address book, so I can’t be directly affected, but I’m changing passwords and looking for and severing connections to old email accounts nonetheless.

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Category: Mobile

About the Author (Author Profile)

My name is Mark Sumimoto; I am Sumocat. I dabble in all areas of mobile computing, but my focus is Windows-based Tablet PCs and pen input. They’ve been part of my arsenal since 2004, and I’m proud to have pioneered the field of ink blogging, earning a spot as a Microsoft MVP for Touch and Tablets in the process. My current tools include a Fujitsu Lifebook T900, TEGA v2, and iPhone 4. Email me: sumocat [at] notebooks.com
  • Lemontree2004

    How does one tell if their email account has been hacked?

  • Josh

    This happened to my gmail account earlier this year. You can now change your gmail settings to only accept secure connections, which I would recommend anyone using gmail double checks and makes sure it’s turned on.

  • http://sumocat.blogspot.com Sumocat

    Lemontree2004: Still working on that. Earliest indicator I’ve found is a undeliverable message from two old and invalid email addresses. Interestingly, not all the addresses in the contact list were hit. After that are replies from people who were prevented from opening the link. At least one of those people was determined to not let the block stop her, went to the malware site directly, and had her computer corrupted. I have a feeling we’re going to need to call some people.

  • http://sumocat.blogspot.com Sumocat

    Update: this particular attack appears to be super new. I did a search for the malware site earlier and came up empty. Now I found it on the McAfee site advisor. Appears to have been added this morning.

    http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/feriadelgas.com/postid/?p=2195730

  • DRTigerlilly

    Neowin posted about compromised hotmail & subsequently ther providers @ the beginning of the week…was supposed to be related to a phishing scam.

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