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Hardware and Software

NEWS
As of this writing, a security hole in Hotmail has been found. According to our Chief pain in the #$@$&*, if you go to this address (http://www.2038.com/hotmail/) you can gain access to anyone's Hotmail account with just a user name.

JOEL'S OPINION
I just went to the site and couldn't believe my eyes. Now the site is crawling but when I was told about it I was able to browse MSN@Hotmail.com with ease. I would expect this security hole to be patched by the time you read this, but then again, Microsoft is still sleeping at this moment.

How did they find the security hole? More news as conditions warrant.

If you have any sensitive information sitting at your Hotmail account, remove it now. We posted the URL to the security hole because this is a serious issue and everyone needs to know that it's real and not a hoax. News.com has yet to write a story but I'm sure Redmond is now aware.

UPDATE @ 11:12 A.M. - It looks like the creators (or someone) has taken down the page and replaced it with "microsoft rules."

UPDATE @ 11:15 A.M. - The creator has now changed the page to redirect to http://www.abelbaker.com/. I'm sure he'll be getting a call from Redmond any minute now to talk about the security hole. That's probably it for this news item. I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE @ 11:55am - News.com just posted a brief story on this issue. Apparently, the www.2038.com site (a reference to a nuance of the Y2K problem) was a mirror of the original site posted in the UK. UGeek confirmed this by getting a copy of the early source code of the www.2038.com/hotmail/ page (2038.com is owned by a Swedish man using the name EricB--UGeek got his last name as well but we'll refrain from publishing it . . . we don't want to do any work for the RedmondBoys), which had a comment taunting Microsoft and stating that 2038.com was just a mirror, without listing the original location.

The hotmail page on 2038.com is now redirecting to Microsoft's Security page (cool), but you can read more about what 2038 signifies at www.2038.com.

 

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