Outlook.com accounts hacked for months, Microsoft confirms

Some Outlook.com users received a mail about a hack, which has been going on for a couple of months. The unauthorized access has taken place for the period between January 1st and March 28th, 2019 through a compromise of a support agent’s credentials. The news comes just after a couple of weeks since a hacker pleaded guilty of hacking into Microsoft and Nintendo.

Luckily, Microsoft says that the entire content of the mail or the attachments weren’t compromised. The hacker could have only read the subject lines, folder names, usernames, and email addresses. Login details or other personal information also weren’t stolen. But as a precautionary move, Microsoft recommends account holders to reset their passwords.

Microsoft sent out an email to the affected users. The email read: “Our data indicates that account-related information (but not the content of any e-mails) could have been viewed, but Microsoft has no indication why that information was viewed or how it may have been used.” But the numerical details about the people affected remain unclear.

According to a security notification from Microsoft expressed that the company regretted the inconvenience and assured its users that it takes data privacy and protection very seriously. Microsoft has also begun an investigation on its privacy teams and internal security to resolve the issue. In the future, Microsoft plans to make things stricter for its processes and systems to prevent such an incident again.