I got one of these notices. My username segregation; password segregation; service segregation practices are solid.

The account in question existed for probably 15 years (for junk mail handling). The username and password have never been used anywhere else. The account was used with minimal frequency (maybe once a year) and the systems it was used on were generally trusted systems... not a polluted web surfing environment. I mostly used it with cli fetchmail on a server.

Occam's razor... a breach at TWC is simply the most likely scenario on how this largely unused junk mail account could have been exposed. In the final analysis, I expect to hear a password hash dump from one of their systems was the source.

I heard a comment recently where a BBC reporter was talking about a particular American industry and he used the phrase "the US privatizes profits but socializes losses." I've been thinking about that.

Had this lifetime service disappeared because they went out of business, we would have all said, oh well. It's sad it didn't work out and would lament the loss and move on. But, they didn't. They decided it wasn't "profitable." Well, it isn't profitable for the consumer to invest and lose, but we accepted those risks. So, like the BBC mentioned, the losses are everyone else's problem and the business wins (while the consumer loses).

I completely disagree with an earlier comment that people got their money's worth math BS of multiplying the monthly rate to date. These users took a risk and fronted the company payments years ahead of the monthly service cost with no guarantee it would be in business that long. Now they tell them thanks for funding our business and you get nothing. This is a broken social contract and that makes them unethical wankers. They certainly couldn't do this with company stock.

I make it a point to not do business with wankers. I put them on the list.

I'm a beekeeper and I've even had an indoor hive (Ulster Observation Hive) which I rigged with some tubing to go out a window. I got it for presentations (school kids mostly) and maintenance was a significant challenge on that colony. Notice, this was on a hive I could close and move outside for maintenance too.

I finally quit using it. When I do a presentation, I just pull a frame from a hive in the yard for the event and put the girls back when it is over. So, while I think Phillips had a nice thought, they are fun to watch in there, but I don't think their design is practical. All the usual beekeeping duties are required and I don't think that is their target market.

However, if this product catches on, I would be happy to start a business to go maintain other people's bees. Working in my yard is hot work and I wouldn't mind working in air conditioning for a change.