Another round of Xtra\Yahoo spam?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Another round of Xtra\Yahoo spam?

1 | ... | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

20520 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4798

#980593 5-Feb-2014 12:03

Athlonite:
Lazarui:
thegeekboy:
surfisup1000: Jeez, telecom have really played fast and loose with their customer data.

I wonder why telecom tolerate such frequent hacks to their customer email accounts? It is getting to the point where I think telecom enjoys letting their customers be hacked.

I've largely moved away from using my telecom email now. It is just getting way too many hacks.

The problem here is that Telecom no longer have any control over the Xtra brand.
Yahoo own the domain and rights to Xtra 100%. That happened back in 2011.

There's no way that those Xtra customers can leave Yahoo - and also keep their Xtra email addresses.
http://techday.com/telco-review/news/telecom-sells-yahooxtra-stake/19896/

Yahoo!Xtra was just the Yahoo.co.nz homepage, it was similar to the Xtra MSN from earlier on they used to have and is similar to the the old BT/Yahoo relationship that used to exsist, Telecom still is the registra holder of @xtra.co.nz.

There is nothing that says Telecom has ever sold on the @xtra.co.nz Domain I'm yet to see one piece of evidence that supports this suppsoed 'fact'

did you even read the link provided by the poster, did you read the bit that said Telecom divested itself of it's 49% stake in yahoo/xtra so now yahoo own it 100% of it

Telecom NZ may still own the xtra.co.nz domain name but yahoo owns the email services side of it and good luck in getting them to release user data back to telecom

Telecom must have a record of all the email addresses, as they must link back to their system. Especially as the broadband login name is actually an xtra email address. Also when my xtra email addresses all got hacked, and they changed my broadband password which is linked to the xtra username also got changed automatically.

Is there a link to the radio interview?. IMO ISPs no longer have a place in providing email, and new ISPs don't seem to provide email anymore. The only advantage for an ISP is it makes their service more sticky, and more difficult to move to another provider.

Maybe they need to give everyone a telecom.co.nz email address instead, and run the service in house on NZ based servers. Xtra is an old legacy brand so the email address domain has little association with telecom now.

DigiDog

51 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 18

#980640 5-Feb-2014 12:33

mattwnzIs there a link to the radio interview?.

I can't find an audio file but there's a basic text link.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/235108/telecom-doing-all-it-can-do-stop-attacks

= = =

http://scambusters.co.nz
Keeping TradeMe scam free since 2003

= = =

old3eyes

9158 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1365

Subscriber

#980641 5-Feb-2014 12:35

DigiDog:
res: I see Chris Quin was on the radio misleading people yesterday:

Good post res. I heard the Quin interview and assumed he was just a Telecom spin doctor with minimal technical knowledge whose job was to appease the Xtra masses. He used phrases like, 'We have to remember that there's been an increase in this sort of activity all around the world' to imply that Xtra hasn't been singled out. I'm surprised that none of the tech journalists have got a grip on this story yet and most media seem happy to accept the Telecom line that Xtra users should just 'delete spam emails'.

Yahoo's service is obviously badly compromised. Telecom's refusal to implement SPF makes the spammers' job so much easier.

I don't think that there's much that Telecom or Yahoo can do about this now especially if the same is a result of earlier harvesting of email addresses. Even if Telecom was to go to Gmail the problem of these same emails will still be there. The only way is to change the .xtra addresses..

Regards,

Old3eyes

richms

29105 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10222

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#980644 5-Feb-2014 12:39

No they could put a spf record which would stop the spoofed emails in their tracks.

Richard rich.ms

Lazarui

136 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 27

#980745 5-Feb-2014 15:17

Athlonite:
Lazarui:
thegeekboy:
surfisup1000: Jeez, telecom have really played fast and loose with their customer data.

I wonder why telecom tolerate such frequent hacks to their customer email accounts? It is getting to the point where I think telecom enjoys letting their customers be hacked.

I've largely moved away from using my telecom email now. It is just getting way too many hacks.

The problem here is that Telecom no longer have any control over the Xtra brand.
Yahoo own the domain and rights to Xtra 100%. That happened back in 2011.

There's no way that those Xtra customers can leave Yahoo - and also keep their Xtra email addresses.
http://techday.com/telco-review/news/telecom-sells-yahooxtra-stake/19896/

Yahoo!Xtra was just the Yahoo.co.nz homepage, it was similar to the Xtra MSN from earlier on they used to have and is similar to the the old BT/Yahoo relationship that used to exsist, Telecom still is the registra holder of @xtra.co.nz.

There is nothing that says Telecom has ever sold on the @xtra.co.nz Domain I'm yet to see one piece of evidence that supports this suppsoed 'fact'

did you even read the link provided by the poster, did you read the bit that said Telecom divested itself of it's 49% stake in yahoo/xtra so now yahoo own it 100% of it

Telecom NZ may still own the xtra.co.nz domain name but yahoo owns the email services side of it and good luck in getting them to release user data back to telecom

They own the domain and contract out to Yahoo in order to run email services for their customers, (data being hosted by yahoo would still be owned by telecom, Yahoo is just hosting it.) this is a standard system the world over and the accounts and data are definately able to be migrated the same as when xtra shifted from their own platform/MSN to Yahoo, there is nothing stopping them from getting the data back and shifting somewhere else expect for money, it would be a costly venture.

Personally I'm in the mind that they should just drop emails all together, along with every other ISP/RSP out there.

Ragnor

8279 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 585

Trusted

#980776 5-Feb-2014 15:34

richms: No they could put a spf record which would stop the spoofed emails in their tracks.

Comes back to this and has been said multiple times in this thread.

Telecom could stop the bulk of this crap with a proper SPF record for xtra.co.nz that indicated only their own and yahoo servers can send for xtra.co.nz.

It's not rocket science, there would be a few customers using their own smtp servers to send for xtra.co.nz addresses but those could be fixed on a as reported basis. small price to pay to address the overall issue.

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

mattwnz

20520 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4798

#980808 5-Feb-2014 16:18

Perhaps they could just end-of-life xtra email addresses, and say any future support will need to be provided by yahoo. The problem though is yahoo don't provide phone support as far as I know, and the majority of xtra email accounts are probably mum and dads with limited technical knowledge who always phone up for any little bit of support needed. I don't think in this day and age ISPs should, or need to, provide email addresses. I mean, even telecoms own adverts demo email setup on an android phone using a gmail address, instead of a yahoo one.

huckster

887 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 460

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#981250 6-Feb-2014 14:44

Yahoo are a mess full stop. Just spent a while helping a relative from the UK. Turns out British Telecom accounts with Yahoo are also affected.

Someone had "hacked" the account on the server side, tweaked the email settings such that the replies were forwarded somewhere else with none to be saved on the server's Sent items, tweaked the reply-to address just to be sure too and then sent emails to god knows how many of the account's contacts saying help; I'm in financial difficulty and need a favour!

Phone calls, TXTs and emails have been bouncing around the world as relatives and friends are trying to find out what has happened.

mattwnz

20520 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4798

#981265 6-Feb-2014 15:17

huckster: Yahoo are a mess full stop. Just spent a while helping a relative from the UK. Turns out British Telecom accounts with Yahoo are also affected.

Someone had "hacked" the account on the server side, tweaked the email settings such that the replies were forwarded somewhere else with none to be saved on the server's Sent items, tweaked the reply-to address just to be sure too and then sent emails to god knows how many of the account's contacts saying help; I'm in financial difficulty and need a favour!

Phone calls, TXTs and emails have been bouncing around the world as relatives and friends are trying to find out what has happened.

I believe BT changed from yahoo last year after the major problems.

There does appear to be another round today, as have had quite a few spam emails come through today from xtra.co.nz addresses.

DigiDog

51 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 18

#981268 6-Feb-2014 15:23

Huckster... any idea why your relative is still using Yahoo? This Telegraph story confirms that BT dropped Yahoo completely in June last year, following numerous security breaches and hassles with email spam.

"The new email system for BT broadband subscribers will be branded BT Mail and run by Critical Path, a privately-held specialist email provider based in California."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/btdota/10089355/BT-dumps-Yahoo-email-after-hacking-claims.html

I've also had spam today from both Xtra and Yahoo accounts. Bring on SPF Telecom... PLEASE!!!

= = =

http://scambusters.co.nz
Keeping TradeMe scam free since 2003

= = =

huckster

887 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 460

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#981272 6-Feb-2014 15:27

mattwnz:

I believe BT changed from yahoo last year after the major problems.

There does appear to be another round today, as have had quite a few spam emails come through today from xtra.co.nz addresses.

BT haven't changed from what I was seeing. Still using Yahoo in this case.

From their webmail login page....

BT Yahoo email security warning

We've recently detected unusual activity on some BT Yahoo email accounts and have already taken steps to secure these.

Sounds familiar...? :-)

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

mattwnz

20520 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4798

#981277 6-Feb-2014 15:31

huckster:
mattwnz:

I believe BT changed from yahoo last year after the major problems.

There does appear to be another round today, as have had quite a few spam emails come through today from xtra.co.nz addresses.

BT haven't changed from what I was seeing. Still using Yahoo in this case.

From their webmail login page....
BT Yahoo email security warning We've recently detected unusual activity on some BT Yahoo email accounts and have already taken steps to secure these.

Sounds familiar...? :-)

But even if telecom changed to another provider last year, they would still be having this same problem, as these emails are not being sent via yahoos servers, they are being sent from servers in places like russia.

DigiDog

51 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 18

#981335 6-Feb-2014 16:34

It looks like the switchover is quite a drawn out affair if this page is anything to go by.

https://home.bt.com/pages/email/index.html?s_cid=con_FURL_newemail

= = =

http://scambusters.co.nz
Keeping TradeMe scam free since 2003

= = =

huckster

887 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 460

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#981735 7-Feb-2014 11:38

DigiDog: It looks like the switchover is quite a drawn out affair if this page is anything to go by.

https://home.bt.com/pages/email/index.html?s_cid=con_FURL_newemail

The login page used still says BT Yahoo. Emails sent by the hacker to non-existant addresses are bouncing back thru Yahoo servers and even if the email was sent from somewhere in Russia, they had hacked the settings on the Yahoo system to change the reply-to address and also use and clean out the Contacts list.

Not just a simple spoof of an email address.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80662 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41086

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#983279 10-Feb-2014 13:14

Just received:

Telecom will be contacting select Xtra email users from today, as together with service provider Yahoo it applies the latest in a programme of security enhancements to the Xtra email platform.

An additional encryption setting called ‘Secure Sockets Layer’ (or ‘SSL’), will soon be the new standard default connection for all Yahoo Xtra mail accounts and Telecom will be assisting users who access the service via a ‘third party’ email client, such as Microsoft Outlook for PCs or Android for mobiles, to update their settings.

SSL secures a user’s information and email messages making communications more private as they move between the user’s browser/device and Yahoo’s servers, to and from the destination. This enhancement secures the email while helping prevent interception or the compromise of emails, which is especially important while on an open public WiFi connection (such as those available at cafes and airports).

Telecom Retail CEO Chris Quin says that while Telecom is working hard to improve the service for dedicated Xtra email users, it’s important that customers take their online security as seriously as possible.

“Despite what has been a troublesome time with Yahoo Xtra, the majority of our users choose to retain their Xtra email address and many tell us that their email address is as much a part of their personal identity as their Facebook profile picture, phone number or home address. We’re continuing to look at what we can do to enhance Xtra mail so our users can have more confidence in the service to get on and do more online.”

“That said, while we’ll do all that we can to keep customers protected via their email portal, these security updates will not prevent the ongoing circulation of spam. Nor will it prevent Kiwis from clicking suspicious links contained in emails which can perpetuate spammers’ activity. Together, we need to work to keep all of us safe online.”

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

1 | ... | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11