Bugs in MSN bedreigen privacy

[Han]

De laatste tijd lees je vaak dat MSN-accounts gehackt worden.
Die accounts worden dan gebruikt om mensen in de buddylist van die persoon lastig te vallen.

Microsoft heeft erkend dat er problemen zijn met de beveiliging van MSN-accounts.
Hier staat een stukje geschreven.

[Han]

Hieronder de complete tekst van de link die ik hierboven gaf. Weet nl niet hoelang die tekst daar blijft staan. [bron : www.eastsidejournal.com ]

'Soft Talk: MSN e-mail blocked: New bugs found
2001-02-27
by By Cydney Gillis
Journal business reporter

Yesterday, while Microsoft Corp. was telling an appeals court why it shouldn't be broken up, a Kirkland customer of MSN was breaking up -- again -- over his e-mail not working.

This time, however, the problem with Microsoft's Internet service was easy to pin down. That's because the e-mail bounced back, unsent, with a very specific message: ``Blocked using relays.mail-abuse.org.''

The e-mail was kicked back because the MSN server has been blacklisted for passing spam by the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS).

And it's not the first time. In November, MAPS, a Redwood City, Calif.-based organization that alerts Internet service providers to spam, listed the exact same server -- Internet protocol No. 207.46.181.25 -- on what it calls its Relay Spam Stopper list.

The list is one of several kept by MAPS, which distributes the information so that Internet services can block unsolicited e-mail ads known as spam.

According to MAPS spokesman Dave Baseley, the MSN server was put on the list Sunday.

Yesterday, Microsoft confirmed the information, but stated it doesn't know why the server got listed.

``MSN is looking into how the server got added and has requested that it be removed'' from the list, said Cory Curtis, a spokesman with the Bellevue office of Microsoft's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom.

Baseley explained that MAPS listed the server after receiving a complaint, which the organization followed up on by testing the server. It was determined to have an ``open relay.'' That means the server is not secure and can be used by unauthorized parties to pass spam.

Up to 40 percent of the Internet service providers in operation today, Baseley said, use MAPS lists to reject e-mail from spamming servers.

DOJ skating on thin ice

Perry Mason it is not. But that doesn't make the courtroom drama in Microsoft's antitrust case any less of a soap-opera cliffhanger.

Will the seven appeals court judges in Washington, D.C., order the world's biggest software company split up? Or will Thomas Penfield Jackson, the judge who ordered the breakup last year, get his comeuppance?

In yesterday's arguments (which I listened to via www.abcnews.com), the judges asked questions that swung wildly for and against Microsoft and its adversary, the Department of Justice, making it difficult to guess.

In the morning, for instance, Judge David Tatel told Microsoft's lawyer that reversal looks doubtful in the case, which hinges, in part, on whether Microsoft used its market dominance with the Windows operating system to destroy a Web browser made by Netscape.

In the afternoon, Judge Harry Edwards told the government's lawyer there was no hard data proving what consumer harm Microsoft had caused by building its own Internet Explorer into Windows. Who in the world, he asked, would want an operating system without a browser?

That, said Judge Raymond Randolph, is ``like saying I'd like to buy a clock radio without a clock.''

It's just what Microsoft wants to hear: that the government's speculative arguments about the market share Netscape lost -- the gaping ``what-ifs'' or ``could-have-beens'' -- are skating on thin ice with the court. A breakup is getting more distant with each passing day.

FTC charges ads were deceptive

Microsoft will not get off scot-free, however: There is still the issue of the Redmond software giant's size and its purportedly cut-throat business practices.

In a case of bad timing, the Wall Street Journal reports the FTC is investigating Microsoft for deceptive advertising. At issue are ads Microsoft ran last spring for the operating software that runs handheld Pocket PC organizers.

The ads targeted market leader Palm by showing off wireless features that consumers would have to pay extra to get -- something, the FTC says, that Microsoft told consumers in print so fine that consumers couldn't read it.

The company is currently working to settle the claim, which is the second of its kind in just six months. Last October, Microsoft settled another FTC charge of deceptive advertising involving its subsidiary, WebTV Networks of Mountain View, Calif., after the FTC claimed consumers weren't getting the full Internet access promised in Microsoft ads.

Don't open that VCard

Microsoft said Friday that a feature called a video business card, or VCard, can carry software code capable of taking over your computer.

If opened, the video card can pose a danger to those who use the latest versions of Microsoft's e-mail programs, including Outlook 97 or 2000, or Outlook Express 5.01 or 5.5

Yesterday, Microsoft released another security bulletin saying a take-over can also happen through a featured called an event viewer in Windows 2000.

Information and patches for each problem can be found at www.microsoft.com/technet/security.

[Gert]

Dit is niet iets van de laatste tijd. de gebruikers hier van msn messenger/hotmail hebben regelmatig een ander account nodig omdat een vreemde zich voordoet als één van hun  

[bjo]

gelukkig heb ik het er af gesmeten  

[Josette]

Ik heb er helemaal geen klachten over!
Werkt perfect.

Josette  8)