Hotmail Account Hacked

George Hincapie · 5 Dec 2013 at 21:53

I got a text from a friend on my way home tonight telling me he'd received a spam e-mail from me and that my account looked like it had been hacked. I tried to log in when I got in and had to go through the password resetting process. E-mails had been sent to everyone in my address book.

I am always very careful about opening e-mails with attachments etc. I have no idea how this could have happened.

What's the best way to protect my account in future? Should I consider a paid for AV product? I currently just use MSSE.

TIA.

bledd · 5 Dec 2013 at 21:58

Do you have a good password?
Is your secret question a simple one?
Do you use that password for any other site?

Lots of websites sadly store their passwords in plaintext

George Hincapie · 5 Dec 2013 at 22:00

bledd. said:
Do you have a good password?
Is your secret question a simple one?
Do you use that password for any other site?

Lots of websites sadly store their passwords in plaintext

Yes
No
Yes...oh

On Holiday · 5 Dec 2013 at 22:00

Make sure MSE is updated daily. Might be worth sticking Malwarebytes on too in case MSE misses anything.

I'm using ESET and never had security problems or gaming issues.

How good is a good password? My email passwords are a mix of upper case, lower case, numbers and a couple of symbols.. I use different ones for other sites.

Google your passwords and see if there are any results

andshrew · 5 Dec 2013 at 22:01

Enabling two-step verification would be a good start and don't use your e-mail password with anything else.

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft...n-by-alias-and-new-international-domains.aspx

George Hincapie · 5 Dec 2013 at 22:03

andshrew said:
Enabling two-step verification would be a good start and don't use your e-mail password with anything else.

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft...n-by-alias-and-new-international-domains.aspx

Perfect.

Thanks to all responders.

KIA · 5 Dec 2013 at 22:56

andshrew said:
Enabling two-step verification would be a good start and don't use your e-mail password with anything else.

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft...n-by-alias-and-new-international-domains.aspx

This.

deblow · 6 Dec 2013 at 02:28

I was also hacked, I received a email from a friend and after opening it BOOM! it sent spam to all my contacts and repeated the process again.

Had to wipe all my contacts and reset all passwords

Mr Krugga · 6 Dec 2013 at 08:29

http://keepass.info/

Raumarik · 6 Dec 2013 at 12:47

Keepass, 1password and lastpass

Take your pick, use a different password for every site and let one of these manage them.

gareth170 · 6 Dec 2013 at 13:58

Halfmad said:
Keepass, 1password and lastpass

Take your pick, use a different password for every site and let one of these manage them.

yeah but make sure you keep the database in a safe place for example on a removable drive because if you get hacked they could take the database and try to access it.

bledd · 6 Dec 2013 at 14:18

I use Keepass, but the password I use for it is the mother of all heroes