Microsofts decision to reset the passwords of 44 million accounts, is actually a good thing.
Microsoft has been forcing account resets for a good chunk of 2019.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an important security mechanism that can dramatically improve your security posture.
Our numbers show that 99.9% of identity attacks have been thwarted by turning on MFA.
you’re free to learn about Microsoft Azure MFA
here
.
Microsoft also offers solutions to protect customers from breach replay attacks.
This includes
capabilities
to flag users as high risk and inform the administrator to enforce a password reset.
Account security is your job, not Microsofts
Honestly, Microsoft shouldnthaveto do this.
Im glad they are, and I wish all companies were as diligent about protecting their users logins.
But you have this power, too.
First, you should always enable two-factor authentication on any account that offers it, period.
Pull up your accounts for any services that appear on the list of breaches and change their passwords.
(And check to see if those services offer 2FA, too.)
If youd rather automate this, you have plenty of options.
Tools likeFirefox Monitorand GooglesPassword Checkupcan let you know when your account credentials are involved in a breach.
Theres really no reason why you shouldnt be using a password manager nowadays.
Im not looking forward to it.)
But really, thats it.
Its not that hard to keep yourself well-protected against most hacks that expose your account credentials.
Yes, but important.
