• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 17, 2024

Microsoft is toughening up its Outlook security requirements to prevent hackers from accessing email accounts. 

Starting on September 17, a user can no longer sign in to their account with only their username and password. 

Instead, they must use a mail or calendar app or the Outlook.com website, which supports modern auth (authentication), such as the latest versions of Outlook, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird.   

The company announced the following measures in a post last week:

• 1.The deprecation of Basic Authentication for Outlook personal email accounts effective September 16, 2024
• 2.A reminder of end of support for the Mail & Calendar apps by the end of 2024
• 3. And the deprecation of the light version of Outlook web application effective August 19, 2024

“While Basic Auth was the standard for quite some time, it also made it easier for bad actors to capture a person’s login information,” Microsoft writes. “This increased the risk of those stolen credentials being reused to gain access to a person’s email or personal data.”  

The new security arrangements affect users of (e.g., Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com. 

It is not clear if these changes will cause a decrease in usage. 

In another change, users will have to switch to Android, iOS or Outlook for Windows or Mac to access their Gmail account from Outlook, Forbes reports.