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back to article Microsoft Outlook PENETRATED by Chinese 'man-in-the-middle'

Microsoft suffered a "man-in-the-middle" attack on its Outlook email service in China over the weekend, according to Greatfire.org. The assault on its mail systems apparently lasted around 24 hours before returning to normal. It came after Google's Gmail was blocked in the People's Republic late last year. Greatfire.org said …

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  1. JassMan
    Joke

    Maybe this is where Theresa May has been getting her ideas

    see title - reg forum - the new twitter

    14 1 Reply
    1. theModge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Maybe this is where Theresa May has been getting her ideas

      I'm not sure the joke icon was necessary there sadly: taking the generous view that her ideas don't come from a crack pipe, a survey of totalitarian regime "best practice" is the only other likely source.

      3 2 Reply

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. channel extended

    Encryption is a crime.

    According to James Comey and David Cameron encryption enables the criminal element/terrorist/paedophiles/drug dealers to escape to view of the police. Charlie Hebdo showed that the survelliance of a free people doesn't work at stopping violence. So the more like China the US and UK become the more the government will like it.

    Perhaps Cameron and Comey are secret communist? They act like it.

    8 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Re: Encryption is a crime.

      You don't have to be a commie to want to ban encryption and free speech, just power hungry assholes.

      9 1 Reply
    2. yossarianuk
      Reply Icon

      Re: Encryption is a crime.

      The Chinese government isn't communist, China isn't communist.

      No country has ever gone from capitalism -> communism as outlined by Marx, all 'communist' countries went from feudal societies -> communism.

      The capitalist stage was needed to finance to start of the communist stage (as well as create the inequality conditions for the masses to demand revolution). The fact that the stage has been missed has been an excuse to have a centralised controlling state - rather than essentially no state (which marx predicted)

      5 5 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps that's why it is called

    'lookout'

    now where's that foxhole?

    2 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    long live the double entendre

    "Penetrated by man in the middle", "officials fingered". ??

    Do the reg hacks have to watch many episodes of South Park before they can dropping headlines like these with such astonishing ease?

    0 0 Reply

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Daniel B.

    So...

    I guess anyone not wanting their email intercepted is using PGP anyway and won't be affected by this?

    0 0 Reply
    1. Steve Knox
      Reply Icon
      Black Helicopters

      Re: So...

      They are affected if they used IMAP or SMTP client software connecting to Outlook/Hotmail and disregarded security alerts during the attack.

      Even if the content of their e-mails during that time is unknown, the fact that they encrypt their e-mails has likely put them on a list somewhere.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Mark 85
        Reply Icon

        Re: So...

        We're all on a list. The 5-eyes list since we're all potential terrorists or troublemakers. Encryption will just get you highlighted for watching. At least they haven't turned off email yet.....

        0 0 Reply
        1. Teiwaz
          Reply Icon

          Re: So... we're all doomed, right?

          Probably on a list for merely using email, and not facebook chat/whatsapp or skype as a non-business entity.

          We'll all be declared 'unmutual' (Prisoner, 'A change of mind') any day now for using communication means that have been coined 'dark social'.

          As soon as 'certain MPs' encounter this term, they'll no doubt think it's similar to 'dark web' or 'as it's called 'dark' it must be nefarious and try to criminalize it.

          1 0 Reply
  7. BristolBachelor Gold badge
    Joke

    Only news because... ??

    Is this only news because the Chinese are doing it? After all we've known for ages that the NSA and GCHQ have been doing it for ages.

    2 0 Reply
    1. Mark 85
      Reply Icon

      Re: Only news because... ??

      Probably because it's a precursor to shutting Outlook mail down. IIRC, they did this with G-Mail before blocking it.

      0 0 Reply
  8. Crazy Operations Guy

    Penetrated doesn't seem like the right word

    I think that 'Intercepted' would be more accurate as the attack only compromised sessions out in the wild rather than gaining access to the internal workings of either end.

    1 0 Reply
  9. xj25vm

    Outlook != Outlook.com

    A bit confused here. Have all users of MS Outlook desktop software in China been subject to the MitM attack? Or are we talking about people connecting over SMTP/IMAP/POP3 to the Outlook.com service? I'm struggling to see how the first one could be the case, but the article keeps on mentioning Outlook - instead of Outlook.com.

    1 0 Reply

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