Hack attempts

MouldyOldDough

According to security under my MS account - there is a constant stream of hacking attempts to access my Hotmail account -  from ALL over the world - every hour or so.... all unsuccessful ?

Seems a little far fetched ?

What's going on ?

marcia_

 Same scammers using a vpn 

MouldyOldDough

marcia_ said:

 Same scammers using a vpn 

I assumed so - but why are they so persistent ?

I don't have anything worth pinching....

coffeehound

Have you checked your email on here:

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

booneruk

MouldyOldDough said:

marcia_ said:

 Same scammers using a vpn 

I assumed so - but why are they so persistent ?

I don't have anything worth pinching....

At the end of the day there's nothing you can do about these attempts, it's much like people walking past your vehicle and checking the handle. It's likely automated too, rather than someone manually trying.

If you have a simple password, change it. If you worry that they'll get into your account, go into the settings and enable 2-step / multi factor authentication.

Also, as previously mentioned, perhaps your email and password has been hacked / leaked in documented data breaches. If so, it's likely that your Hotmail account would come up against increased hacker scrutiny. The https://haveibeenpwned.com/ site allows you to check to see if your email/password (hopefully only old passwords, rather than ones you still use) have been involved in any breaches.

Mark_d

Use passwordless login.  Then you won't have people trying to crack your password

MattMattMattUK

MouldyOldDough said:

marcia_ said:

 Same scammers using a vpn 

I assumed so - but why are they so persistent ?

I don't have anything worth pinching....

Usually they have just written a program that runs through batches of emails and passwords from previous data breaches, as nearly all of us are in multiple data breaches now it is not surprising that you get hit multiple times a day. 

As others have said, make sure you have 2FA turned on and unique passwords for all sites. 

booneruk

Mark_d said:

Use passwordless login.  Then you won't have people trying to crack your password

Well I learn something new every day! I didn't think Microsoft used this for their general accounts, but maybe I should have known better since I use their authenticator app for various work things.

MouldyOldDough

Mark_d said:

Use passwordless login.  Then you won't have people trying to crack your password

But my email account is NOT with MS

marcia_

MouldyOldDough said:

Mark_d said:

Use passwordless login.  Then you won't have people trying to crack your password

But my email account is NOT with MS

 Is it yahoo? I get a notification on the yahoo app on my phone to log in.

PHK

MouldyOldDough said:

Mark_d said:

Use passwordless login.  Then you won't have people trying to crack your password

But my email account is NOT with MS

Your first post says it is a Microsoft Hotmail account?