Re: [LUG] hey

John's email that started this thread was sent from Yahoo's servers,
while the From address is a @btinternet address. That doesn't mean
that it's faked, it just means that BT currently uses Yahoo for email.

I've pulled up a few from my archive and you're right, they are primarily btinternet.com origins. Apologies for overlooking the obvious!

We still don't know what kind of vulnerability Yahoo has, but the
instances I've seen (like with my account) suggested that someone had
access to my account rather than merely to their servers.

Yes, but at what level?

The volume especially recently suggests it's too widespread to be individually compromised accounts.

That points me to thinking the compromise is, or was, at filesystem or database level. It may have been plugged, it may be ongoing. Either way my personal information, despite never having been a customer, is now in the hands of the UBE-ists. (Likely it was before, but allow me to pretend to be a little indignant)

I did do such research and showed that Yahoo does have a major issue.

http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2013/02_21.xml

Interesting article, thank you.

> and they don't appear to be doing a damned thing to stop it. (And
> yes, I have filed abuse reports)

I don't think abuse reports help against a vulnerability, other than
make the company more aware of it.

Making somebody aware of a problem is the first step in resolving it. Whether that second step is taken is entirely down to the willingness or ability of that party to fix it.

Yahoo is big, and a mess. But if it were something they knew how to
solve, they'd do it.

You're more generous than me.

That article compares Yahoo with Gmail and Outlook/hotmail. (Interestingly, MS once tried friendly and then hostile takeovers of Yahoo, and Google too were once in talks about a merger)

Both Microsoft and Google have had reputation problems recently, Microsoft with negative feedback and loss of market share with Windows 8, and Google because, well, a growing perception that they're evil. (Actually, my view is that it's simply become fashionable to hate on google for the "Attack the big guy" mentality of the British) But both of these companies value their reputation highly and do a lot of pro-active work to protect and bolster it.

Yahoo is no longer in their league. It's old, sprawlingly big, but has been aimless and undirected for years. I honestly don't think they care about what the world thinks of them, or if they do, they don't have a clue about fixing it. My impression of Yahoo is of an old internet giant that has forgotten where it had left it's hat and car keys and is aimlessly patting its pockets trying to remember where it left them.