Vodafone Ireland has apologised to customers after it was forced to temporarily deny access to Microsoft's Hotmail e-mail service due to a security concern.
The decision to restrict access to the website was taken after a customer who logged into their Hotmail account via a Web browser on their mobile phone reported that they were able to see the full account details of another Vodafone customer.
"As soon as we received the report of the problem we took down all links to Hotmail and conducted a full investigation with Microsoft. The issue has now been resolved and it cannot happen again," Vodafone's head of Corporate Affairs Rosemary Steen told the Irish Times.
As a result of the move, subscribers were unable to access their Hotmail inboxes via Vodafone Live for a short period on Thursday night and yesterday morning. Access to the website has since been reinstated.
Vodafone said it believed that only a handful of subscribers were affected by the move and apologised for any inconvenience caused to customers as a result of the move.
“We believe this was an incident that has only occurred recently and impacted a small number of customers using particular handsets,” said Ms Steen.
Any customers with concerns are asked to contact Vodafone customer care on 1907.
