New Hotmail users had better be ready to don the ol’ thinking cap when it comes to their email account passwords: as part of a campaign to discourage hacking, common and/or “easy” passwords such as “123456,” “password” and “ilovecats” will no longer be accepted. In fact, it has been reported that Microsoft may actually roll the new rule over to existing users, forcing those with offending gate keys to switch to a more suitable string of letters and numbers.
As part of the same initiative, Hotmail will offer a new feature called “My friend’s been hacked!” Here’s how it works: if a user notices, say, that a friend’s account has been hacked and is being used to send spam, the feature reports the compromised account, blocks it, and requires the rightful owner to undergo the account recovery process.
Read more at TechRadar.
