In a 2009 Fox & Friends broadcast, anchor Dave Briggs recounts how his Hotmail account was compromised, leading to a mass scam email to his contacts claiming he was stranded in Malaysia and needed money. Security analyst Robert Siciliano explains likely causes—phishing emails, insecure PCs, public terminals, outdated patches, or spyware—that could have exposed Briggs’s password. He describes how attackers can use compromised accounts to harvest personal data such as credit‑card numbers and Social Security numbers. Briggs describes the difficulty of regaining access: the hacker changed his password and security questions, and Hotmail support was unhelpful. Siciliano advises persistence with the provider, but stresses that the primary fault lies with weak, easily guessed passwords vulnerable to dictionary or brute‑force attacks. He recommends stronger passwords (mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, symbols), keeping computers patched and protected, and considering more responsive email services. The segment ends with frustration over Hotmail’s lack of assistance.
Chapters
Alright, welcome back here to Fox Friends. Well, it happened to Sarah Palin, Salma Hayek, Paris Hilton, and now our very own adorable Dave Briggs. Yesterday—
That's quite a foursome.
Oh, sorry. Yeah, yesterday someone hacked into Dave's email account.
That's right, they blocked my access. They also sent a spam message to everyone I knew saying I was actually stuck in Malaysia and needed, I don't know, like $1,500 or $2,000—
And I wired it to you.
—transferred via Western Union. And one friend actually was calling Clayton, a common friend of ours was calling Clayton to find out if I was okay. This is such a bummer.
How did this happen and how can you protect yourself from it happening to you? Joining us is Robert Siciliano, security analyst with Intelius.com and CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com. Robert, thanks for being here. We don't want to give a how-to lesson this morning, but we do want to know how easy it was for some slimy person to do this to Dave.
Well, unfortunately, somewhere along the line, Dave may have given up his password, either receiving a phishing-type email. His account could have been hacked because his PC might not be properly secured. Critical security patches, virus definitions. Could have accessed email in a public terminal, which might have had spyware. So his password somehow may have been compromised.
Yeah, and this is one of— this is a really interesting point, which is that— actually, put this up on the screen, because emails then got sent out to his entire contact list. Here was a part of the email. It said, "I need your help." And he said, "I had a trip to Malaysia. I need money badly." So this is someone who had accessed, via his password somehow, his email box, sent out a mass email to hundreds and hundreds of people.
And they could have actually sat silently even longer and monitored his communications and extracted credit card information, Social Security numbers. So I think that— I think you're lucky.
Well, I tell you what, it was an awful experience because I couldn't get back in. He locked me out. He changed my personal questions. He changed my password, and nobody would help me at all. So what are you supposed to do? I'm calling Hotmail, I'm emailing Hotmail, anyone I could reach out to, and no one would help me. What are you supposed to do?
Well, what you're supposed to do is follow the protocol that you did, be very persistent, contact the email provider, and if you're persistent, more than likely you'll get somebody to flip the switch as you did in this situation.
Yeah, and also perhaps not use Hotmail.
And don't use an obvious password, you say, either, because mine was very obvious.
I wouldn't blame— I would not blame Hotmail for this. Seriously, it more than likely was a compromise on your end. There was probably something that you might have done. I mean, you have to take a little bit of responsibility for this. Sure. The path of least resistance— the path of least resistance generally is the user's account, the person who is plugging in the very simple password that could be hacked by what's called a brute force. Right. Now, your passwords, if they're just, you know, somebody's name with no No numbers, no uppercase, no lowercase. That can be hacked by what's called a dictionary attack. They just go through the dictionary with automated processes and they can easily get your password.
Robert, great stuff. Thanks so much for weighing in on this. We appreciate it. Helping our Dave out.
Good luck. Thanks, Robert. Helping our little Dave out.
I mean, it would have been nice if Hotmail had been a little more responsive.
Listen, let me just say this about the Hotmail thing. Ruined my entire day.
Not the level of security that there also is in spam filters and protections that you get with another account, perhaps like Gmail. Google is very, very out in front on working on Gmail on a regular basis, so if people are thinking about switching, listening to Dave, maybe now is the time to upgrade your email account to something more useful. All right, in the means, I'm on board.
