Microsoft banning weak passwords

Microsoft said it is protecting its clients by dynamically banning commonly-used passwords which are easy to crack.

“The most important thing to keep in mind when selecting a password is to choose one that is unique, and therefore hard to guess,” said Microsoft.

“We help you do this in the Microsoft Account and Azure AD system by dynamically banning commonly-used passwords.”

Microsoft said cyber-criminals analyse passwords for common usage, and use this data to attack users.

“What we do is prevent you from having a password anywhere near the current attack list, so those attacks won’t work.”

The Dynamically Banned Passwords service is live in the Microsoft Account Service and in private preview in Azure AD.

“Over the next few months we will roll it out across all Azure AD tenants.”

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