10,000 Private Email Accounts on Microsoft Services Compromised

10,000 email accounts on Microsoft services (@hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com) were compromised when someone posted the usernames & passwords to a forum. Most of the details don’t matter much, however you can find them on Neowin.

What does matter is if you have an @hotmail.com, @msn.com or @live.com email account, you should change your password immediately. On the outside chance that you are one of the 10,000 people who have compromised accounts, you should take precautions to make sure nothing bad happens with, or to your email.

While you’re at it, you might as well move on over to Gmail. You can learn a ton of fun tricks that Gmail offers at Gmail Ninja Training. Gmail also has “Mail Goggles” (which I wrote about a year ago in my third post… incidentally, it is one of my favorite posts).

Regardless of your email provider, always practice safe computing by protecting your passwords.

Gmail Phishing

Mark from JerseyStyle Photography contacted me this morning about an odd email he received from “Gmail.”

From: Google Email Team
To: Date: Sep 25
Subj: Warning: VX2G99AAJ

Dear Account User,

This Email is from Gmail customer care and we are sending it to every Gmail accounts owner for safety. We are having congestion due to the anonymous registration of Gmail accounts so we are shutting down some Gmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account. Due to the congestion in all Gmail users and removal of all unused Gmail Accounts. Gmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, you will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.*

User name: ………………………..*

Password: …………………………..*

Date of Birth: ……………………….*

Country Or Territory: ………………..

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Thank you for using Gmail !

The Gmail TeamG MAI L BETA

This is absolutely fake. It’s a phishing attack designed to steal your password.

Here are the signs that it’s not real:

1. Google won’t ask you for your password in an email. No legitimate company will. Ever. Don’t give your password to anyone via email.
2. Even if it contained a link to a Google-looking site that asked for your password, I would be skeptical. There are some phishing sites that look very convincing.
3. It’s poorly edited. Take the last line alone, “The Gmail TeamG MAI L BETA.” The spacing is all wrong. Google wouldn’t release that.
4. It doesn’t make sense. Google has a ton of data storage capacity, they won’t be running out of space.

If you ever get an email like this and are unsure if it’s the real deal, send it my way and I will take a look for you.

Practice safe computing with a health skepticism while reading email.

Special Gchat Smilies

Melissa of My Digital Mind recently showed me the special, hidden Gchat smilies.

I’m especially fond of the “poo,” and the “more cowbell” ones.

"I've got a fever..."

Google Calendar Gets a Green Erlenmeyer Flask

I always thought Erlenmeyer Flasks were cool.

Especially when they are on the top right corner of a Google web app.

That little green flask links to Google Labs. Labs are add-ons for Google applications. Some Labs are fun, while others are practical.

Until yesterday Labs were only a part of Gmail, now they are also part of Google Calendar.

They allow you to customize the program to better meet your individual needs. There aren’t many Labs for Calendar yet, and most of them are more for enterprise users, but there will be more in the future.

If you use Google Calendar, go try the new Labs out. If you haven’t used Google Calendar, go check it out… mine keeps my busy life in order. It always knows where I need to be, even when I can’t remember.

Where’s the Beta?

My world was off kilter this afternoon.

Google lifted their ever-present “Beta” tag from the Gmail logo. Basically all of Google’s cloud application had been labeled as beta for years, even though it didn’t really make sense; until today.

Where's the beta?

My browser felt off balance without the beta tag, however, I found a remedy.

In Gmail Labs (click the green beaker in the top right corner), they have a little option called “Back to Beta.” Scroll down to it, and select “Enable.”

Then click “Save,” and return to using Gmail as usual.

Ah… Back to the status quo! Usually I’m all about destroying the status quo, but this innocuous tag is strangely comforting to me.

Gmail Ninja Training

I strongly recommend using Gmail for your personal and professional email needs.

It’s fast, easy to use, and works almost 100% of the time, plus it has a ton of cool features.

Those features are what really set Gmail apart from the competition, and they are often overlooked. Writing a guide for these features has been on my “To Do List” for a while. However, Google beat me to it.

So here is there Gmail ninja training guide.

It has four levels: White belt, Green belt, Black belt and Gmail master.

These are very easy to follow, and most of them are pretty practical.

If you are only going to learn two lessons, look at item 9 under White belt (about reporting spam), and item 5 under Gmail master (it’s about email encryption). Both are easy to do and will help improve email security.

The guide also explain Gmail’s substitute for folders (a frequently asked question/ complaint about the email service). See White belt items 3 & 4 for more information on that.

When you reach the end of your training, keep an eye out for Google’s masterful sales pitch.

Go train grasshopper… and practice safe computing.

What Email Address Should I Use?

A lot of people have “junk email addresses” that they use to sign up for, whatever it is they sign up for. This isn’t a bad idea, especially if you are signing up for things that will reward you with piles of spam.

Many other people use email addresses from work, their Internet service provider (ISP), or other organizations that they will not be affiliated for the rest of their lives.

I recommend that you be mindful of the email address you use to sign up for important things such as: Stock, banking, credit card, other personal finance sites, any sites that will bill you, or web sites that you may need to visit at a later phase of life.

Why? You ask.

• Junk email addresses are for junk. If you actually need to find something in them it could become a nightmare.
• ISP and work email addresses might not remain in your possession forever.

Side Note:

Just don’t use your ISP email address. Providing you with a free email address isn’t a service, it’s a lock-in method.

People hate changing their email address. If they get you using theirs, you will be less likely to cancel the subscription, even if you are unhappy with the service (I have no data to back up this claim, I’ve just seen it with a lot of clients over the years).

The important stuff should have a fixed email address attached to it, so you always have access. Try using a email provider that has a high probability of existing over the course of your life; Gmail is a safe bet, but I am fairly certain Yahoo Mail will be around indefinitely as well.

This may seem obvious, but I’ve heard of a lot of people who used their work email addresses to manage things like their stock portfolio. Upon retirement, they stopped receiving information until they changed everything over to a new address. Why go through the hassle when it’s easy to plan ahead?

Practice safe computing with good email use.

Happy Internet Has No Credibility Day *UPDATED

Every year on April 1 while the real world is celebrating/falling victim to April Fools day, netizens celebrate “Internet Has No Credibility Day.”

“Internet Has No Credibility Day” is a glorious day where damn near everyone with an established voice online throws all credibility, integrity, and humility to the wind in an attempt to prove how funny they are to the world (Myself and Jason included… incidentally we were both pretty hard on Microsoft CEOs).

Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch did a post rounding up the many of the big April Fools posts.

My favorite was Gmail’s Autopilot.

On a more philosophical note – Can you imagine if something really important yet outlandish happened on April 1?

Here is the classic Christopher Walken Pranksters sketch on from SNL for your viewing pleasure.

Update

UltimateGuitar.com celebrates Internet Has No Credibility Day by republishing old news that is either ironic or hilarious out of time:

Oddly enough… readers initially responded to some of these very clearly old news articles as if they were new…

Metallica standing up to Napster and refusing to let their music be available through its service will likely open up the doors for other artists to do the same and could very well mean the end of music piracy as we know it.

Too funny.

Google Contacts Standalone Page

Gmail has always had a contacts section, but at some-point fairly recently (I think) they created a standalone page for contacts.

http://www.google.com/contacts

It works well, allowing the opportunity to organize it however you please and offering plenty of fields to fill in information about your contacts (although I pretty much just use an email address or two and the person’s name).

Gmail’s Undo Button Help’s with Sender’s Remorse

You know that dread you feel when you realize that you forgot to edit the email, didn’t attach something important and the recipient isn’t someone you want to think you’re a moron, or you realize that your email was really harsh and you never should have written it in the first place… Gmail’s “undo” button is for just those occasions. 

If enabled, Gmail will give you five seconds to click “undo” and prevent the message from reaching the intended recipient’s inbox.

Enabling Undo

1. In your gmail account click “Settings” in the top right corner.
2. In settings, click on the “Labs” tab.
3. Scroll down to the “Undo Send” lab and click, “Enable.”

How Undo Works

You write and email and click send, and subsequently regret it.

Probably shouldn't have written that one.

Within five seconds of clicking send, select, “Undo.”

Don't spend too much time contemplating your decision.

After hitting “Undo,” the email goes back to draft mode where you can edit or delete it.

Crisis averted!

Mark, this is not directed at you.

Google, thanks for the chuckle

I really like and use a lot of Google products… but every once in a while they do something that is really out there.

Enter “Mail Goggles,” the new Gmail feature that, if enabled will make you answer a series of simple math equations before you may send an email on the weekend. 

Why do you need this? 

It is to prevent you from sending regrettable emails while intoxicated (for the record, April Fools Day has long past). 

Now, as a general rule, I want to stay away from matters of politics, religion, and social commentary on this blog… but I can’t help myself.

Seriously, Mail Goggles!?

When I look at this I think of archeologists thousands of years from now. They are looking over the software and other creations of our wonderful society, and they find this… Mail Goggles. This top team of archeologists study our email system, and find this piece of functionality that makes users answer simple math problems before they can send an email… on weekends. They subsequently publish a paper titled, “Elementary Math: 21st Century Humans Enjoy Basic Arithmetic in Spare Time.” In this paper, they ponder how such a technologically advanced society has created this complex email software, yet finds amusement in basic math. Then one day, some young PhD looks over the software and realizes that we are not amused by math… we just lack discipline.

Thank you Google for releasing this software and making me cringe and laugh at the same time. Now if you just add this feature to the Google Android cell phone platform, you can keep drunk people from calling and texting their former significant others. Throwing small rocks at their window in the middle of the night may have a resurgence!