14 DAY TRIAL // While Windows Live Hotmail has evolved with a range of new security features, users need to also take an interest in protecting their data and privacy online.
The first step in doing so is making sure that they use a strong password. Here’s an example, it might not be such a good idea to use “password” or “1234” as the password for the Hotmail account.
And although this might seem like nothing more than common sense to some, there are those that still use extremely weak passwords for their accounts. In such a context, there’s little that Microsoft can do to protect their accounts from being hacked.
Especially since brute force attacks involving automated scripts are designed to check for a list of commonly used weak passwords.
However, provided that a strong password is in place, one that ideally is a combination of lower-case and upper-case and special characters as well as numbers, and not a dictionary word, security features such as Single Use Codes, Full Session SSL, SMS-based account recovery, and Trusted Senders can indeed work their magic to protect user data and privacy.
January 28, 2011 was Data Privacy Day, and Dharmesh Mehta, director, Windows Live Product Management, highlighted some of the efforts Microsoft is doing to protect Hotmail users, including blocking abuse algorithmically.
“Windows Live is continually getting smarter about detecting and neutralizing threats automatically. One way that hijackers attempt to steal your data is by creating fake email addresses or websites that impersonate “official” ones and ask for your passwords or other information.
“To help protect against these schemes, we add a green shield icon next to messages from known, trusted senders, and we use Microsoft SmartScreen to automatically recognize and warn you about suspicious senders and messages,” Mehta stated.
At the same time, Microsoft monitors Hotmail activity, scanning for suspicious activities.
Attackers more often than not share patterns of behavior, and the software giant has mechanisms to detect hack attempts designed to target Hotmail accounts.
“If we detect login attempts from multiple continents, we will check to verify that a human is using the account, because hijackers often use automated scripts,” Mehta explained.
“And if we detect major changes in volume of email being sent or spam-like activity, we will automatically cut off the spammer to stop the abuse and allow you to reclaim your account.”
At the same time, users have the option to set up their accounts with additional information in order to streamline recovery in the eventuality that they are victims of a hack.
By making sure that they provide an alternate email address, a cell phone number, or associate a physical computer as “trusted” by their accounts, Hotmail users will make it that much easier on themselves to recover control over their email address in the eventuality that something goes wrong.