KPTM FOX 42: Omaha News, Sports and Weather; Nebraska News, Sports; kptm.com | Hotmail, Other Passwords Hacked
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OMAHA (KPTM) - The scale of the phishing attack on Hotmail could stretch further than first thought, with accounts on Google and Yahoo now threatened.
CNET.com and the Wall Street Journal reported Monday the passwords for thousands of Windows Live Hotmail passwords were recently leaked. The news was first reported on by Neowin, and confirmed by Microsoft.
It is also being reported that more lists have also been circulated with genuine account information relating to email on Google, Yahoo, Comcast and Earthlink, as well as other third-party web mail services.
According to a Windows Live blog post, Microsoft discovered the posted credentials over the weekend. The company is locking the accounts in question, and points to a recovery form for you to use to restore access if your account has been locked.
Microsoft's post blames a phishing scheme as the most likely source of the stolen passwords, and says that there "was not a breach of internal Microsoft data."
To avoid getting scammed, Microsoft says customers should change their passwords every 90 days and not open unsolicited email attachments and links from both known and unknown sources.
Microsoft didn't say exactly how many accounts were affected, but Neowin reported that the original list displayed accounts with names starting with "A" and "B."
Twitter and other social networks are abuzz with people advising others to change their passwords. Microsoft wrote in the blog post that those who believe they were affected by the phishing scheme should immediately do just that.
