My ISPForce9 got hacked. Well, they don't use that exact terminology, they phrase it as a "security breech on a webmail platform". During this time, a hell of a lot of email addresses got disclosed to spammers, so much so that they have had to completely destroy their current webmail system for a more basic one. I was one of the customers affected by the spam monkeys, and found that when I opened outlook there was a great big pile of spam left for me.
I am used to getting spam through my Windows Live Custom Domain managed email address, but I access my mail for that address online and all of the emails go through a "safety scanner". It really does scare me when I download spam onto my own computer however, using outlook express. Even with the Windows Vista UAC, it still ain't good to have dodgy attachments and crap on your pc.
So, they came up with a solution to the spam problem. They upgraded their spam detecting platform to a new spam filter, one that marks all spam messages with the word -[SPAM]- in the subject line. That's all well and good, but the spam was was still getting into my inbox to start with. The next precaution taken was to move spam to an "online folder" that you could access via webmail - which worked for a bit, but some of the spam email still got through to my main inbox. A solution for me was just to not use that email account. I usually just monitor it for newsletters and billing summaries from Force9 anyways - so there is not much point monitoring it.
Well, just when I thought they had given up - they come up with a fantastic idea - to give each customer a free .co.uk domain name. How cool is that!!! Of course, no one thought of just creating a new mailbox for mail, so I think rather than tackling the problem this is kinda an apology in it's own weird way. I think I forgive them...
