If you have an Outlook, Hotmail, or Live email account, prepare to change your authentication method. No more login via username and password, hello to modern authentication!
If, like hundreds of millions of users around the world, you are accustomed to logging into your Hotmail, Outlook or Live email account through your username and password, prepare to a little change! Because this somewhat basic authentication method can lead to security vulnerabilities. It is very easy for cybercriminals to steal a person’s login information and then gain access to their emails or personal data. Unfortunately, cyberattacks by email are only increasing… Also, from September 16, 2024, Microsoft will set up a so-called “modern” connection for accounts for personal use, as it announced in a blog post.
Outlook login change: the arrival of modern authentication
As part of the Microsoft Secure Future Initiative (SFI), the Redmond firm will remove basic authentication for Microsoft personal email accounts (Outlook, Hotmail, Live) from September 16, 2024, to replace it by modern authentication methods, a generic term for a combination of authentication methods (two-factor or client certificate-based authentication) and authorization (implementation of Open Authorization, known as OAuth, by Microsoft.).
“With modern authentication methods, we apply additional processes/tokens that users may not notice and which add an extra layer of security”explains the company. “Anyone who attempts to use an app that does not support modern authentication will no longer be able to access their Outlook.com, Hotmail, or Live.com email from those apps”. To simplify, let’s say that you will have to automatically access your account through the latest update of the Outlook applications for iOS, Android, Mac or Windows, or use an email client such as Apple Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, the version Outlook web or the Outlook desktop app that comes with Microsoft 365.
A transition period begins now to communicate the timetable for the end of support for basic authentication, to contact affected users by email and to remove basic authentication. Please note, if users do not add an additional security step, such as two-factor authentication, they will be unable to log in in September. Note in passing that Microsoft will abandon the light version of the Outlook web application from August 19, 2024, and that the Mail and Calendar applications will no longer be supported at the end of 2024.