Email address leaked - Have to reset my password every day.

[smoky depot]

Hi,

My live/hotmail email was hacked. This problem has been resolved but now my email address is out there and I can see in my account security that there are attempts being made to log in to my account many times per day from locations all over the world (VPN I’m assuming).

I’ve got every level of security set up so I’m confident my account is safe but due to the regular attempts, it means I have to reset my password every time I log in on any device, which is infuriating as you can imagine.

What can I do to resolve this? I’ve tried the Microsoft support page but as with any big corporate support, they have every block imaginable to stop me from simply logging a custom ticket. Can I change my email address so these bots are no longer trying to log in?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[smoky depot]

Ok, thank you. I will try that!

[zinc basin]

That's at https://account.live.com/SignInPreferences but Unfortunately the primary email address can't be removed as a login option. You can add/remove others (I'll share example), but just know that everyone in the world that knows your email address can trigger those login attempts, and they generally occur for everyone, constantly, all day every day. To keep you raccount safe, make sure that you use 2FA security.

For example, even if I told you my password, you'd still have to find me in the real world, steal my phone, somehow guess the unlock pin on there or I guess cut off my thumb and use it to unlock the phone.... it's basically nigh impossible that this is going to happen (and if someone is going to cut off your thumb, you probably have worse issues).

[zinc basin]

Yeah but that has some serious downsides unfortunately

Like when you email people, it will show as from an address with random GUID ID instead of coming from that given alias. But if you use a 3rd party email service anyway that may not matter

[smoky depot]

Thanks all. I've made a new alias, set it to my primary, deleted the old one and signed in on other devices. I should be able to tell if the issue is resolved by this time tomorrow

[smoky depot]

It looks like this has done the job. Sorry for this big screen dump but you can see here how often the attempts were and how the change at around 11pm last night essentially stops it.

[zinc basin]

Yes indeed, there was never any doubt

However, just remember the issues above, you won't be able to send an email going out from your mailbox using that alias, for example