Microsoft is banning obvious passwords

In an attempt to clamp down on how easily some accounts are cracked, Microsoft is banning certain passwords.

In a blog post, Microsoft revealed that more than 10m accounts are attacked daily. It revealed that it has a lot of data about passwords that are used in these attacks. Hackers, it says, also has data about commonly used passwords, which will be banned.

This list will be dynamically updated based on new password leaks. Once a new password becomes too commonplace, it will be banned as well.

Microsoft says that this feature has been rolled out to Microsoft Account Service, which includes Outlook, Xbox, OneDrive, and the like. It is also going to roll out the feature to accounts that use its Azure AD login system.

You won't notice a difference unless you try to select a password that's used frequently. In that instance, you'll be told to choose a password that's harder for people to guess.