How to safeguard Microsoft/hotmail.com/outlook.com account

 Let's say, your email address is xxxxxx@hotmail.com (it could be xxxxxx@outlook.com, it does not matter)

  1. Go to https://account.live.com/names/manage and create an alias yyyyyy@outlook.com

  2. Designate yyyyyy@outlook.com as a default alias

  3. Go to https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/options/mail/forwarding and set old email alias xxxxxx@hotmail.com as a default "From:" address

  4. Go to https://account.live.com/SignInPreferences and disable sign-in for xxxxxx@hotmail.com

Now, every attempt to login to xxxxxx@outlook.com triggers the error
"That Microsoft account doesn't exist. Enter a different account or get a new one."

See image https://i.postimg.cc/zvHpQkF0/error-no-account.jpg

You are still going to send by default from xxxxxx@hotmail.com
Obviously, keep yyyyyy@outlook.com completely private, use it for login only.

Of course, enable 2FA using TOTP (Authenticator) and/or hardware device (like Yubikey) regardless of everything else.

See also https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity_help/comments/1ei0opf/attempts_to_hack_my_microsofthotmailcom_account/

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