Disregarding the human "holes", I think the biggest hole here is Hotmail allowing expired accounts' usernames to be registered again. That should be a no-no con

Disregarding the human "holes", I think the biggest hole here is Hotmail allowing expired accounts' usernames to be registered again. That should be a no-no considering the importance of the use of email as an identity. They can purge the account as it expires, but they should not let others use the username again. Most others are just "best practices" that try to keep balance between security and usability. Except for the practice of emailing a password in clear text which compromises a lot of security for little usability gain.