Hotmail meltdown throws up questions about e-security

WASHINGTON, Aug 31: It was like someone suddenly ripped out your shower curtain when you were under the water jet. For several hours on M...

WASHINGTON, Aug 31: It was like someone suddenly ripped out your shower curtain when you were under the water jet. For several hours on Monday, millions of users worldwide of Microsoft8217;s free Hotmail e-mail services found their accounts 8212; and their private e-mail 8212; exposed to anyone who knew their user name.

The major security flub exploded over the weekend when hackers created World Wide Web sites that allowed anyone access to any Hotmail account without the secret password. At least one of the sites was located in Sweden and the breach was first reported in the Swedish daily Expressen. Microsoft, which bought Hotmail from the Indian cyberwhiz Sabeer Bhatia last year for nearly 400 million, shut down services for several hours on Monday as it scrambled to plug the hole. Bhatia, who studied in Bangalore, joined Microsoft after the December 1997 deal with Bill Gates, but has since quit to begin a start-up venture on his own.

Hotmail is the Internet8217;s most popular free e-mail program and claimssome 40 million accounts worldwide. The figure is deceptive because one user could have several accounts under different names. Hotmail8217;s nearest rival is Yahoo! which does not provide user figures. Hotmail is also the most popular in India e-mail service in India.

According to the cyber community, the Hotmail hole surfaced sometime over the weekend when an unknown hacker or hackers wrote and posted a code on Internet sites explaining how to use a digital skeleton key.

Visitors to the Hotmail site could assume the identity of any Hotmail user merely by knowing the user8217;s sign-on and read their e-mail without keying in a password. Microsoft was notified of the problem early Monday morning and shut down access to Hotmail for several hours to fix the problem, a company spokesperson said.

But cyber gurus are horrified at the implication of the massive flub. The incident proves that Internet infrastructure stinks, Peter Neumann, a prominent computer scientist was quoted as saying. 8220;Computer systems we8217;redealing with are so flaky that you can8217;t keep out the simple attackers,8221; he said.

The Hotmail cock-up comes on the heels of a raging debate over privacy on the Internet arising from a recent development involving the online books and music seller Amazon.com. The pioneering e-commerce company has recently created what it calls a purchase circle, which allows anyone entering the site to learn what books or music or video a particular country or organization or community or locality/suburb is buying.