You might not want to admit it, but you may still have a Hotmail account kicking around.
Once, though, Hotmail was hip—and quite a target for hackers.
were the first advertising-supported web-based email services, freeing users from ISP-tied accounts such as those provided by AOL and CompuServe.
Under Bill Gates’ leadership, Hotmail became part of the MSN internet platform and grew to 50 million users by summer 1999.
Through a spokesman, a group called Hackers Unite announced in Swedish media it had gained access to every single Hotmail account using a web browser.
Account access was possible by visiting a webpage that exploited a login script and typing in a Hotmail address along with the simple password “eh.”
From the webpage, anyone could read or send email from a Hotmail account. »