Microsoft is about to roll out new security features for its Hotmail service. Microsoft will be forcing users to not use their preferred or simple passwords which are easy to remember. I do prefer stronger passwords and there is no question about it.
To prevent hijacking of Hotmail Microsoft has developed couple of new features. “The first lets you report a friend’s account as compromised – a feature unique to Hotmail – and the second prevents you from using common passwords that make your account easy to hack,” Dick Craddock, Group Program Manager, Hotmail, wrote in a company blog.
Microsoft does need these features because it seems, like any other Microsoft products, Hotmail is highly insecure. I am not saying that Hotmail is insecure, Microsoft has admitted it.
Dick Craddock, Group Program Manager, Hotmail, writes in a company blog, “We released this feature a few weeks ago. Initially, it only let you report Hotmail accounts that were compromised. But it worked really well – we got thousands of reports of compromised accounts.”
Source: http://www.muktware.com/news/1867
Thousands of compromised accounts? Time for those users to switch to some safer service.