Yahoo forced to recall security update

Yahoo! was last night working to put users back in touch with their accounts more than a week after their POP emails became irretrievable thanks to a security update.



The search giant said it will now roll back what it identified on June 3 as the cause of the problem - SSL functionality, which it said "many users have been clamouring for."



But users' calls for enhanced security technology were made presuming their emails would still be retrievable, which won't be the case for all users until the next "few days."



Of those users who can access their mails and have added SSL, retrieving messages from their accounts will no longer be possible as the protocol is recalled.



The promise of a roll back comes after Yahoo! deployed a fix to the problem on Friday, which it said would resolve issues for most users over the next three days.



Responses to Yahoo's latest advisory reveal Google's Gmail has become the chosen alternative for users blocked from new mail or ejected from their accounts.



Yahoo said the latter problem stems from its roll out of new and more aggressive spam filters, which had "unfortunately" lead to server errors or time outs for some users.



"I have been a loyal Yahoo (Mail Plus) user for over 6 years and this latest problem is the last straw," a visitor wrote on Yahoo mail blog.



"I recently converted my father to Yahoo Mail Plus as I have several friends and family. Two of them have experienced this problem while none of us have had problems with our Gmail" account.



Another affected user reflected: "I have been with your mail service for a very long time. Never had any problems. Until this last year. Not only have I missed POP mail but your mail site comes up very slow!



"I have set up an account with Gmail. But I hate to leave you people because you have been the best for so long. But I guess [e]very good thing comes to an end."



Yahoo has apologised to users for the problem and thanked those who identified their accounts as being affected, saying it might reach out for further feedback should their outage persist.