Tasks for the weekend March 6 – check your logins

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Youtube video here For those of you that do use Microsoft accounts, do you check your log in history? I mean your ONLINE log in history? Go here – sig
[See the full post at: Tasks for the weekend March 6 – check your logins]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I’m seeing tons of unsuccessful login attempts from around the world. Should I be concerned?

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Consider putting two factor on that account.  Is your password long and strong?  Have you reused that password elsewhere?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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It’s long and unused. Microsoft says this on the attempts from abroad

“Don’t worry. This sign-in attempt was unsuccessful, so there is no need to change your password”

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I also see 12 unsuccessful login attempts from Brazil and Poland in the last month.

But I do have two-step verification enabled (using the Microsoft Authenticator app).

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[T]

Interesting. I see two unsuccessful logins from China in the last month and like Susan they are both through my Skype username which i never use. Does anyone know how to delete just the Skype account but retain the Outlook account? I can’t find where to do this because of course they want to make it as difficult to find as possible.

edit: Well, according to NordVPN they won’t allow you to unlink your Microsoft and Skype accounts which is unfortunate.

https://nordvpn.com/blog/how-to-delete-your-skype-account/

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by T.

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Not uncommon to see failed logins. I manage websites and email servers and the amount of failed logins is enormous, especially to email addresses advertised online or listed in a hack database. Failed isn’t the issue. Logins that were successful, but not by you, are the issue. Strong passwords!

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T

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Strong passwords and two factor authentication! Which is becoming increasingly essential, and not just an SMS text either but a one time password through an app. For android i use a FOSS alternative (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.liberty.android.freeotpplus/) and for Keepass there are various plugins (https://keepass.info/plugins.html). No cloud (someone else’s computer) options for me, thank you.

I was also trying to find that site which shows you the websites which support 2FA but it turns out the original domain was taken over so it’s been temporarily relocated – https://2fa.directory/

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b wrote:

I also see 12 unsuccessful login attempts from Brazil and Poland in the last month

I see none.

If you see unsuccessful login attempts your email with Microsoft has probably been compromised.

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Alex5723 wrote:

If you see unsuccessful login attempts your email with Microsoft has probably been compromised.

If my Microsoft account had been compromised the login attempts would be successful, wouldn’t they?

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I believe that means your email address is compromised. Is certainly out there and known to the bad guys. But if the login attempt was unsuccessful they don’t have your password. By the way I agree that you should have 2FA.  I use that plus Microsoft authenticator.   I was seeing unsuccessful logins and sync requests from around the world on my account.  It is extremely disturbing!  I know my email id  has been compromised. I have had it for over 15 years & it’s been in multiple breaches.  You could always check have I been pwned. Anyway I didn’t like it and I recently added a new alias specifically for online accounts.  I changed my Microsoft account to a different email. Now it’s the primary alias which I am using for email only.  I’m going to delete my old account, eventually.

In the meantime I am not seeing any unsuccessful logins anymore.

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I can’t view my login activity; I just get a spinning circle made of up  small dashes, per the attached screenshot.  Any suggestions?

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[Alex5723]

b wrote:

Alex5723 wrote:

If you see unsuccessful login attempts your email with Microsoft has probably been compromised.

If my Microsoft account had been compromised the login attempts would be successful, wouldn’t they?

Not if they don’t know your password.
If you use 2FA the hackers can’t revoke password and set a new password.
Trying to login multiple times may lock your access to Microsoft.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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