Hotmail: A Security Concern

My recent experience with Hotmail

Today, I want to share a recent security issue I had on my Hotmail account and the actions I had to take in order to secure my account. Make sure to stick around for the guidelines.

I don’t use Hotmail as much, but my first ever email was Hotmail. Some of my oldest accounts such as Apple and Facebook were connected to my Hotmail address.

I only log in to my Hotmail account if I need to log in to Facebook or Apple on a different device, and I have to enter the code they email me, which happens only once a year or so.

I only have advertising emails on them from old Turkish shopping websites I used back in the day because I was in middle school in Istanbul when I got that account.

Last December, when I was visiting family in Türkiye, I had to login to Facebook from a different device, so I needed to see the code on my Hotmail account.

Everything seemed normal. I got the code, and I got in, but I had the urge to check the recent login attempts… I’m grateful for that urge.

The recent login attempts were shocking as there were at least 5 to 8, sometimes 10–20 login attempts from various countries, including China, Germany, Singapore, Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, Croatia, etc.

As seen below, these people (or a person?) were trying to get in from different IP addresses. The language of the screenshot is Turkish, but you can see the dates and attempts.

Başarısız oturum açma: Unsuccessful Login Attempt

Thankfully, they were unsuccessful, but it was still terrifying to see that someone or some people have been trying to hack my account every single day since 2020.

They tried to guess my password. They tried to reset my password and guess my security questions. They also tried to do this thing called “automatic sync,” but I have no idea what that means.

I’m thankful for double authentication because even if they guessed my extremely long and complicated password, they don’t have my number or other emails to enter the code.

Lesson to learn: Make sure to turn double authenticator on across all your accounts, just to be safe.

The first set of actions I took that day:

1. Changed my password, just to be safe.
2. Signed out of all devices.

I tried not to worry after taking these actions and decided to check the login attempts the next day.

Not so surprisingly, they were still trying to log in from different countries.

Another screenshot from the next day is below.

1 saat önce: One hour ago

12 saat önce: 12 hours ago

Dün 22:23: Yesterday at 10:23 PM

I didn’t like the look of this, and I didn’t feel safe at all. I decided to check all my other accounts, including Instagram, Facebook, Gmail accounts, etc., to see if anyone was trying to sign into those as well.

This would confirm whether this was a personal attack or just an attack on Hotmail accounts. Thankfully, no one was trying to guess my passwords on all my other accounts. It was just on Hotmail.

I no longer felt comfortable using Hotmail. I don’t like the idea of people trying to guess my password every single day. And this has been going on for the past 4 years.

I finally decided to get rid of my Hotmail account altogether, and I’ll share the steps for that below. But here’s why I decided to take this drastic action to secure my account.

1. Even though I have the double authenticator on all my accounts, I’m not going to take any chances. I don’t know what these people can do.
2. The fact that they’ve failed to hack for years now, trying multiple times a day for years now, doesn’t mean they will fail all the time. They might find a way.
3. I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Deleting this account wasn’t easy since my main big accounts were all connected to this one, but I was determined. Here are the steps:

1. Change all emails on accounts that are connected to this Hotmail

For me, this was:

• Instagram
• Spotify
• iCloud
• Facebook
• Riot
• Stage 32 (A screenwriting website)
• I also use some Turkish online shopping websites when I travel to see my family in Türkiye.

So, one by one, you have to get into these accounts and request to change your email. They usually send a code to your old email address to make sure it’s you, then you can type in the new email address and get a new code to that one.

But mainly, I decided that I’ll be using an email address for all my important accounts, an email address that I don’t give to anyone else.

2. Double-check all your emails to make sure you changed all the accounts’ emails that’s connected to this email.

I had to go through all my emails on Hotmail to make sure there were no websites or accounts I was missing. And I definitely missed a couple of them, so I had to go back and change emails on those websites, too.

3. Delete your account

Apparently, when you request to delete your account, Hotmail will delete it if you don’t log in for 30 days.

I’m still counting the days to check if my Hotmail account was completely deleted, so I hope no one is trying to guess my password anymore.

After I took all the actions to secure my accounts, I finally did a Google search to figure out what was happening in my Hotmail account. In English, I couldn’t find much.

But I hit the jackpot when I did the search in Turkish. Apparently, everyone who has Hotmail in Türkiye has been experiencing this because an online shopping website got hacked in 2020, and everyone’s Hotmail accounts have been leaked.

So, my message to you is to secure your accounts today!

Check all your emails and accounts, and make sure you’re the only one logging in, trying to log in, or logged in. Take extra steps to secure your account, and let me know if you’ve ever experienced something like this before. What were the actions you took?

Thank you for stopping by!

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