Hotmail says bye to silly passwords

123456 is our fave

15 July 2011 17:53 GMT / By Hunter Skipworth

Passwords that even a cat could hack are set to be banned from Hotmail after users continue to use weak letter combinations to protect their accounts.

Things like 'password' and 'ilovecats' are out, with new users having to use properly complex logins. Hotmail also plans to roll out the changes to current users, meaning password changes for those who use weak lettering.

Whilst we might moan, it is actually a good thing. Losing your account to a hacker or having personal details taken is always unpleasant, so Hotmail is actually doing us a major favour.

You would be surprised how many people still use very obvious passwords. Consider for example the Gawker password hack which showed how shockingly straight forward many people's passwords were.

A 'my friends' been hacked!' feature has also been added in to try and trace back and stop spam being sent from acquaintances' accounts. The next time they log in they will go through a recovery process to bring their email back to life.

For those considering using the classic '123456', sadly this too is now no longer allowed. Still though, will be nice to see an end of spam sent from friends accounts.

Via: arstechnica.com Via: dvice.com

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Hotmail, Microsoft, MSN, Email, Online