Email Security Issue from Cox?

By an edhat reader

We received emails from Cox last night saying there might be a security issue in our email account or possible malware on the computer. Went to Cox website and tried unsuccessfully to change password. Chatted with tech support this morning, was able to change password, but not able to log in to webmail. Agent said this was a “massive” attack, many received the initial email, and it should be reported to abuse@cox.net. Initial email very convincing, looked exactly like other legit Cox emails. Agent said Cox webmail sites are very slow today because so many people are resetting passwords, etc. Hour later, still not able to sign in to webmail, password disappears every time I try to log in. Don’t get message saying wrong password, just loads the login page again. Anyone else receive similar message? Had success dealing with it?

3 Comments

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I got the message, and it did direct to a legitimate Cox site for password reset using a secure connection. I wonder if this is just a case of Cox having, perhaps accidentally, blasted out a bunch of email to users who hadn’t changed passwords for a while. At any rate, it looks like no harm done, just a little inconvenience.

I highly encourage you to turn OFF your cox e-mail and go with something much more secure like Gmail. I just did this for several reasons.. Primarily, Cox says that they have a SPAM Filter, but it obviously does not work at all !.. My old Cox e-mail address would receive many obvious Spam and Malicious e-mails daily. The obvious crap that Gmail does a real nice job of eliminating. It is highly dangerous to keep getting these types of e-mails.. eventually you will click on one of them accidentally and then your machine is done, if not just compromised! Dump Cox!

Which webmail service provides “better” spam/malicious email filtering is arguable and varies over time as the heuristics at their server adapt to new threats. Plus a large part of each individual’s exposure to spam/malicious email is a very *PERSONAL* thing that has almost nothing to do with your web service. That exposure depends on which websites you’ve visited, how you’ve used your email address, and just plain luck. Even in the case of “targeted” attacks, not every Cox customer (for example) will be affected unless your address was grabbed by someone. Case in point, I know Cox email customers who have not been affected by the OP’s issue.