Weak Passwords Banned from Hotmail


Recommended Posts

July 15, 2011, 11:49AM

Weak Passwords Banned from Hotmail

Microsoft’s email service, Hotmail, is implementing tougher standards for user passwords to combat the increasing occurrence email account hijackings.

The company said Hotmail users will no longer be allowed to use common, easily guessable passwords like “password,” “12345,” and “qwerty,” which are susceptible to “brute force” and “dictionary” attacks. They will also have to meet more stringent password requirements when creating a password. Users with passwords deemed too weak or common will be required to change them, the company said.

Microsoft is also introducing a new feature to highlight account takeovers when they occur. Hotmail users can now report accounts that appear to have been compromised if they receive suspicious emails from it. Suspicious mail can now be tagged with a “My friend’s been hacked!” category. That feature has been available for mail received from other Hotmail users, but has now been expanded to allow for reporting hacked email accounts sent from other services.

Accounts that have been marked as compromised will no longer be available to the spammer and the account's rightful owner will be put through and “account recovery flow” that will help them regain control of the account. If it is the case that the compromised account is using a different email service, then Hotmail will contact that service, and they will take it from there. You can find the Windows Live announcement here. http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/07/14/hey-my-friend-s-account-was-hacked.aspx

Story: https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/weak-passwords-banned-hotmail-071511

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...