Microsoft Security Breach
One of our fantastic supporters from the business sector has been in touch to say they recently had their Microsoft accounts hacked. The breach resulted in over a thousand e-mails being sent from their account to their contacts with an attachment for the recipient to click to open. Our supporter was also unable to access their accounts whilst this was happening.
Fortunately most of the recipients realised that something was amiss from the different tone and language of the e-mail from that the business normally uses and the fact that the e-mail was unexpected – and therefore did not click on the attachment. Had they done so it may have installed malware on their device which could watch every key typed from that point on or could block access until a ransom is paid.
It is possible that this situation arose because hackers were able to breach the Microsoft account password.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) advises to use three random words to create a strong and memorable password e.g. kneepastahopscotch. By adding numbers and punctuation characters to your password this makes it stronger still e.g. kn33p@st@h0p5c0tch!
NCSC also advise the following to keep your online accounts secure:
- Use a unique and separate password for your email.
- Store your passwords somewhere safe: save to your browser or use a password manager.
- Add extra security to important online accounts: turn on two-factor authentication.
For more useful advice and information visit Strong Password Generator.
If your account has been hacked please see NCSC’s useful guide to recovering a hacked account and this handy infographic
