By: Wasem Imam

Microsoft Corporation for International Software confirmed that there are more than 44 million unsafe passwords with different services, given that these words are used many times by users.

Microsoft made it clear that by comparing more than 3 billion logins with other corporate services, which were posted online through cyber attacks or data leaks.

Microsoft added that the scanning process was limited to passwords, which were used multiple times in the period from January to March 2019, and the company compared the passwords of users with the leaked login data on the Internet, and published these results in its security report.

Microsoft indicated that it forced users to change passwords, by displaying a dialog box asking the user to change the password when trying to sign in Microsoft services, such as the Xbox game service, Office software, and Outlook email.

The Microsoft test showed the reason why IT experts warn against using the same password in several services or accounts on the web, as the user must use an individual password for each service and account on the Internet.

The user can use the password management software to be able to use a single password for every service on the web such as the free tool integrated in the Mozilla Firefox browser or the open source Keepass program, in addition to the existence of smart phone applications from the password management software.

Information technology experts always recommend the use of the 2FA two-factor authentication function as long as they are available in web services and accounts, where the user must enter a second code in addition to the user name and password, and this code is usually sent via SMS or it is created through SMS Authentication applications, and there is a method that requires connecting U2F-USB units to computers when you want to log in in order to identify the user.