What Is Hotmail Password Breach

Hotmail is one of the first web services on the internet. It was founded by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia and launched in 1996. It was sold to Microsoft in 1997 and became a part of MSN services. In 2011, Hotmail has been replaced by Outlook.com.

At the beginning of 2021, reports have said that more than 3 billion Hotmail and other email services and passwords were breached. These credentials were leaked in hackers’ forums. It was a mixed set of Netflix passwords, LinkedIn, and shopping platforms.

Security websites described the Hotmail password breach as “The mother of all breaches”. Some of your data is certainly caught up in this breach, sites reported. If someone gets his hands on your email’s password, then probably he will be able to access your other accounts.

The 2021 incident was not the first Hotmail password breach, in fact, Microsoft confirmed in 2019 Hotmail accounts were breached. According to Microsoft, hackers were able to access “a limited number” of Hotmail accounts and other services that the giant tech company provides.

Create a Strong Password to Prevent Another Hotmail Password Breach

First of all, you need to know the following signs. If your passcode is short, contains common words, like one of your family member’s names, and is easy to identify by someone who knows you well, then your passcode is weak, and you have to change it as soon as possible.

Here are the steps that security experts recommend for better online security:

1. Make it long enough: There’s no standard length for security codes, but the 12 to 14 characters long are the most common recommendation.
2. Include capital letters, lower case letters, special characters, and numbers: Use a mixed set of characters to make your security code hard to guess or crack.
3. Don’t make it based on real words: Don’t use any natural language in your passcode. This type of security code is one of the easiest ones to crack by brute force software.
4. Don’t make it based on your personal information: Using your dog’s name, your ex’s name, or any other type of information is a bad practice. It’s common among hackers to use pieces of software that contain lists with millions of words to guess the targeted passcode by trying every possible combination.