Signing up for Hotmail? Think of a strong password
Microsoft's free e-mail service will no longer allow people to sign up with common passwords, in an attempt to reduce the number of hijacked e-mail accounts.
Hotmail is banning passwords such as "password", "123456", "ilovecats", and "gogiants", in an attempt to make it harder for spammers to hijack users' e-mail accounts.
People who sign up for the Web e-mail service will be prevented from using a password typically used by millions of others, Microsoft said in a blog post on Thursday.
"This new feature will be rolling out soon, and will prevent you from choosing a very common password when you sign up for an account or when you change your password," wrote Dick Craddock, group program manager for Hotmail. "If you're already using a common password, you may, at some point in the future, be asked to change it to a stronger password."
Read more of "Hotmail puts a block on flimsy passwords" at ZDNet UK.