PlusNet shuts down webmail indefinitely
Fingers unpatchable flaw in third party software
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
The spam crisis at PlusNet has taken its webmail service offline indefinitely after security auditors found unpatchable flaws in software provided by @Mail.
It has announced that it is replacing the offending software and has apologised to customers.
A service update (posted here) tells customers the emergency measures have been taken to guard against "minor vulnerabilities" which have not yet been exploited. PlusNet said it would provide details of plans to restore the service later today.
The closure follows a hacking attack on the BT-owned ISP, which saw customers' addresses and contacts bombarded with drug marketing. When PlusNet became aware of the attack last week, the webmail servers were immediately take offline, but returned to service after 90 minutes.
Neil Armstrong, product development director, told The Reg that PlusNet was working with police to trace the spammers, and will release more details of the investigation on Friday. The firm would not provide any details of the exploits which the attackers used, saying they were previously unknown, and it is working with @Mail. The @Mail webmail client is a white label POP3/IMAP software package for UNIX and Windows-based servers, popular with ISPs.
Some information around events which have caused the latest in a long run of email crises at PlusNet is beginning to emerge. An attack was launched last Wednesday which exploited a vulnerability in one of six webmail servers to load a botnet onto subscriber machines. The hole also allowed the hackers access to a list of customer email addresses and their contacts. PlusNet said it could not provide a figure for how many addresses had been stolen, but promised no other data had been taken.
Armstrong pointed to a legacy of underinvestment at the firm, which it copped to earlier this year on its BT-backed relaunch. He said: "That has changed now and it's worth knowing that this is a new vulnerability in a piece of third party software." ®
COMMENTS
plusnet/force9 accounts still not accessable from outside the UK
The Plusnet and Force9 portals are *still* not accessable to users accessing from non-UK IP addresses. This is a pain in the a*se for people (like me) who live abroad. Spoke to Plusnet support - apparently non-UK IP addresses will be blocked indefinitely. They didn't acknowledge that it is possible to have a secure website that is accessable from outside the UK.
Their latest incident report is at the below URL by the way:
http://community.plus.net/comms/2007/05/23/webmail-incident-report/
It's always been poor...
I always had loads of spam (tens thereof daily for a business-use-only mailbox) - which started even when the mailbox was fairly new... Webmail message list showed invalid dates for many messages, e.g. 70/01/12 or something (NOT just US-standard reverse date format).
I sent constructive criticism to Plusnet, but it must have been their monkeys who read it, not someone who gave a toss...
ALSO, their email is back up, but my account doesn't work!
https://webmail.plus.net/src/login.php
https://webmail.plus.net/src/redirect.php
- gives the following error:
ERROR:
ERROR: Connection dropped by IMAP server.
Over a period of days (including when it's supposed to be up) this error is still there. They haven't deleted my account have they? I would LOVE to get some debate practice with their lawyers!
Title
I've had a go with the new (temporary) SquirrelMail solution, and it's about a million times faster than the @Mail one. Make it permanent!
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
What you need to know about cloud backup
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
Data control in the cloud
