Using Hotmail as a secondary address? Be very careful
July 30, 2009 by naliazor
Filed under Articles, Latest, Technologies
If you’re like me, you have at least two email addresses. One of these email addresses is for important business; you hand it out to co-workers, friends, and family, whose emails you actually want to pay regular attention to. The second email address is for other stuff, like signing up for newsletters, shopping online, or creating accounts for services on the web. Also, if you’re like me, you might tend to forget to pay attention to that second email address for days, weeks, or months at a time. As it turns out, forgetting to check a free Windows Live Hotmail account might have some dire consequences.
According to the Windows Live help files:
Free Windows Live Hotmail accounts become inactive if you don’t sign in for more than 270 days if the account stays inactive for an additional 90 days, the account name may be permanently deleted. If you don’t use your Windows Live ID for 365 days, your Windows Live ID may be permanently deleted. or within the first 10 days after signing up for an account. After an account becomes inactive, all messages, folders, and contacts are deleted. Incoming messages will be sent back to the sender as undeliverable. Your account name is still reserved. However,
What does this mean to someone who is using a Hotmail address to sign up for things on the web? It means that, once your year of inactivity has passed, anyone can sign up for a Windows Live account with your expired username. The unintentional side effect of this is that if your Windows Live account expires, one could potentially create an account with the same name and use the password reset function on almost any online service attached to that email address, receive the email with the password (or further instructions) and take over your account entirely without your knowledge. This very technique is how the personal accounts of Twitter employees were taken over by malicious users.
If you’re a Windows Live Hotmail user, and you want to prevent this from happening, you need to do one of two things:
- Make absolutely sure you log into your account on a regular basis. Setting a weekly or monthly reminder on your calendar application of choice may aid you with this option.
- Get a different email account with another provider like Gmail, and change the email addresses on all of your online accounts.
Also, if you’re a paid Windows Live Hotmail user, make sure your subscription is up-to-date. Once a paid Hotmail account subscription runs out, the account simply turns into a free account and becomes subject to the same expiration rules.
Source : Downloadsquad.com [Adam Maras]
