UKC

Just stumbled across the option which displays recent activity history for my email (Hotmail) to find that every day there has been an attempt to log in from various countries in South America which fails because they used the wrong password. Bit of an eye opener really.

In reply to m0unt41n:

Agreed. Your email account is probably the most valuable thing you have. I don't know if Hotmail has it, but I suggest you switch on 2-level authentication. Hotmail and Yahoo have traditionally been very easy targets for hackers. I keep getting emails saying people have been attempting to access an old Yahoo account. I therefore logged on to change the password only to find it full of spam - oh the joys of old fashioned mailing systems. Gmail allows no spam through.

In reply to ByEek:

That's the opposite of my experience - I find that Gmail's the only e-mail provider that lets me get spammed me to death.

In reply to whenry:

I have had a gmail account since 2005 which I have never sent an email from and only use it for Google Play Orders and it has never had any spam.

In reply to m0unt41n:

Thanks for posting. I had a look at my hotmail, someone has tried to log in from Vietnam :-/

My password is a paranoid 14 characters with numbers, lower and uppercase...might be time to add some punctuation.

In reply to Ffion Blethyn:

The 2 part security works well - you log in normally on the computers you use often. But when you log in elsewhere it will send a numeric code, I think 6 digit, to another email address or mobile you have registered with them. You then have to enter that. And can specify if you trust the new computer so you don't have to do it again.

In reply to m0unt41n:

I wouldn't worry about it, as long as your password isn't something like "password" or 1234. I used to maintain servers at work, and some days there would be thousands of login attempts, usually from China and Russia. They just try the usual passwords, I doubt your email ( or my server) is valuable enough to warrant a sophisticated attack.
Hotmail is vulnerable to token grabbing if you log in on an open WiFi connection. I think that's how most hacked accounts happen.

In reply to m0unt41n:

My Hotmail has had the same password since I set it up sometime back in the 20th century, I've never had any trouble.
Gmail on the other hand, every time I go abroad it locks me out for security reasons.

In reply to Ffion Blethyn:


According to latest thinking, password length and uniqueness is the protector, not complexity. If you use the same password, on multiple sites, you are at (small) risk even if it is a complex password.

In reply to m0unt41n:

How does one check this option?

In reply to Trevers:

In Hotmail
Click on your name (top right)
Then account settings
Then check recent activity

I had a yahoo account that I just use for free cycle hacked from Pakistan some time ago, there's a way of checking yahoo as well but I forget it.


Thanks for the other replies, I now have 2 step authorisation.

In reply to Hooo:

My Hotmail / Outlook (why on earth Microsoft choose to call their email address the same as the email programme they sell) has a hissy fit on my Surface Pro if I try to log on via an open WiFi, will only let me do it via a secured WiFi. Not sure if that an extra layer of security you get when switching on the 2 stage security.

In reply to m0unt41n:


"Hotmail" is viewed as quite dated so they would have wanted to play it down and because outlook.com does a similar thing to the Outlook application.

In reply to m0unt41n:

Well of course you don't have any spam if you only use it for one specific application. That's like saying you've never been in an plane crash because you've never been on a plane.

In reply to m0unt41n:

For the OP, I have login attempts from various countries as well. Probably bots just checking to see if the account is still open so they can continue spamming, I wouldn't worry about it.