Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
Sebastian Thrun: Google's Driverless Car
Using Hotmail as a secondary address? Be very careful
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 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, 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.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.
Comments
22
Subscribe to commentsVincentJul 29th 2009 7:25PM
Yup, it happened to my dad. He used to work outside the city, and for that reason, could only access his emails on weekends. For some reason, he did not look at them for a long time, and gone they were...
KeegdnaBJul 29th 2009 8:52PM
I have 2 gmails, one that I use for general stuff and my primary google account, and one for personal/professional contacts. I have a hotmail (along with my original AOL account) that is at this point used for the soul purpose of redirecting spam.
Its a setup that I find works exceptionally
markJul 29th 2009 9:05PM
hotmail has been like that for years. I forgot to log into mine a year or two ago, lost all my stuff but easily got the account back. but not to worry, I'm back up to storing ~150k spam messages (4.2gb).
Drew GreenJul 29th 2009 9:10PM
I have a few Live/Hotmail accounts. I created a recurring appointment on my calendar for the last day of every month to remind me to sign into those accounts, that way they will never go inactive.
davin.petersonJul 29th 2009 9:56PM
I have a Gmail account and Hotmail & Live account. I use Gmail as my main account. I get so much junk email in my Hotmail that I use it only for junk. I also have an @live email account, which I don't use very much. I try to log in to it once a while, so I won't lose it.
RyanJul 29th 2009 10:10PM
I have 5 gmails, 1 hotmail, and 1 yahoo. The latter are only for IM services and the Windows Live ID of course.
Does signing into my Hotmail IM network via Digsby constitute as a login? Hotmail was always slow, and you always got spammed by the Windows Live team and others which was annoying. Gmail FTW.
QuikboyJul 29th 2009 10:57PM
You can unsubscribe or even block Windows Live team updates (I find them just as annoying as Google's promotional stuff). It also helps to click 'junk' on junk e-mail.
As for slowness? Yeah, years ago it was. But it loads up pretty fast for me, though I do have a high speed connection.
I think people who still find Hotmail slow and spammy, need to try it again.
nikescarJul 29th 2009 11:14PM
I have no problems with the speed of Hotmail/Live. I love the Windows Live Mail desktop app (I think of it as Outlook lite light slim mini).
The only addition I would like is to manually block junk mail using key words. Every so often this one same spammer gets through. Marking spam as "junk" works really well and usually means goodbye after one marking.
QuikboyJul 29th 2009 10:54PM
You can't really fault too much on Microsoft - they're one of the most popular e-mail services around the world. They're can only be so much storage.
I have 5 Windows Live addresses, 1 Gmail, 2 Yahoo!, and 1 AOL.
WL Hotmail is my primary account, and I log in every day through Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Mail to chat with friends or check e-mails. I just use Gmail if I have Gmail friends. Yahoo account is mostly for Yahoo! Answers and Flickr, and AOL is for the rare chance I feel like talking on AIM (not my favorite IM client).
I like Hotmail, and I don't have any junk mail issues (it helps if you click "Junk" on junk mail for future reference) and no speed issues either.
RyanJul 29th 2009 11:19PM
It sounds like MS has become better, which is good. Gmail hasn't done anything bad to make me switch yet, nor have MS provided something revolutionary (like Google Wave, for instance). I'll probably keep my setup as is for now.
Ronald McDonaldJul 30th 2009 12:16AM
"anyone can sign up for a Windows Live account with your expired username"
Are you sure about that? As far as I know, most email services lock your account name because that would be a huge security hazard otherwise.
RockyJul 30th 2009 12:54AM
No big epiphany here. Yahoo! email has been doing this for years as well.
shibathedogJul 30th 2009 1:10AM
Are you sure about that? Every website/service I have ever used when they delete an account you are unable to re-register it, It just becomes like a locked dummy account no one can get into or use. Why would MS make this mistake when no one else has? It seems pretty stupid of them.
sitrucJul 30th 2009 1:25AM
This seems like a great post about nothing. This has been around for years. Also, the twitter stuff wasn't technically "hacking."
minibarJul 30th 2009 1:56AM
i'm pretty sure Ronald McDonald (lol) has it right and the account is locked for some time period for security purposes. you can often recover the account but not the messages for quite some time beyond the contractual limit after the account expires due to inactivity. i link my hotmail accounts so it only takes a click or two to sign in.
1ijackJul 30th 2009 3:12AM
that happened to my mom also. i made a gmail account for her but her friends still uses the old email. so now i have to check her old reactivated email once or twice a month so that it wouldnt get deleted.
AndreaJul 30th 2009 3:17AM
I don't understand what the big deal is. Is it really that stupid that they cancel your account if you clearly are not interested in using it. I mean, a term of a year seems a pretty long period to me for a service that's offered 100% for free.
It's the same with web domains: if you fail to pay the hostingcompany they will eventually cancel the account and domainname, and it will instantly become available to others for registration.
QuikboyJul 30th 2009 5:17PM
Exactly! Microsoft is the #2 most popular e-mail service in the world, and I can't see why users that use the free version of Hotmail, expect Microsoft to bother with keeping old accounts alive if the users aren't checking into it much. It's not like Microsoft has infinite resources for users that barely use it.
If you're a busy person, then just find a friend or go to a library and just log-in and check your e-mail. If you wait for MONTHS to check e-mail, the contents are probably irrelevant at this point.
Niels van DijkJul 30th 2009 4:17AM
I used to use dodgeit.com for junk and stuff, but I think they're gone now..
TonyJul 30th 2009 5:44AM
Does this also happen to linked WL accounts. I have one main a/c and two a/cs that I use for singing up to offers.