Windows Live Hotmail CAPTCHA cracked by spambots

Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker technology has discovered that spammers in their recent tactics have drawn their attention towards traditional and infamous Hotmail, aka Live Hotmail services after the streamlined Live Mail Anti-CAPTCHA operations.

Spammers have managed to create automated bots that are capable of not only signing up and creating random Hotmail accounts, but also use these accounts for spamming purposes from a proper Live Hotmail service. Websense predictions about this sophisticated spammer strategy at the time of Live Mail Anti-CAPTCHA and Gmail Anti-CAPTCHA operations, and its outcomes have been factual with this attack.

Websense believes that there are four main advantages to spammers from this approach. First, the Microsoft domain is unlikely to be blacklisted. Second, they are free to sign up. Third, the integration of Hotmail with wide range of Windows Live services. And fourth, it may be hard to keep track of them as there are millions of users worldwide using the service.