When asked what personal email you use, most will immediately reply with Gmail, Facebook Mail, or Yahoo Mail while a select few of us will admit to using Microsoft Hotmail. Why? Speculation would be that it is because Hotmail is viewed as “old” and “klunky”. But that is pure speculation.
So when the admission by Microsoft that a Hotmail exploit is stealing email, many may have replied well so what, no one uses Hotmail anymore, right?
Wrong!
Using data from the most recent Application Usage and Risk Report (May 2011), Hotmail and email in general, generated these impressive statistics:
Email Program Found | Bandwidth Consumed (in Petabytes) | % of Total Bandwidth Observed | % of Email Bandwidth Observed |
SMTP | 469 PB | 2% | 31% |
MS-Exchange | 254 PB | 1% | 17% |
Gmail | 213 PB | 1% | 14% |
Hotmail | 178 PB | 1% | 12% |
So to say that the risk is low because no one uses Hotmail is presumptuous, and as the article comments referenced above indicate, Hotmail is indeed used by corporate customers as their business email system. Additionally, employees are known to, for whatever reason, use their personal email accounts for business purposes. Regardless, the exploit is significant. The response to the public appears to be insufficient.
Note: The Application and Usage and Risk Report (7th Edition, May 2011): The report summarized 1,253 traffic assessments performed worldwide between Oct 2010 and April 2011. Total bandwidth observed was 28 exabytes and the number of applications discovered was 1,043. Frequency indicates that the application used was found at least once during the assessment.
By submitting this form, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Statement. Please look for a confirmation email from us. If you don't receive it in the next 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.