Logging into Outlook accounts will soon be more secure. Microsoft has just announced on its site several upcoming changes for all users with a personal account on its messaging service. This therefore concerns users with an email account whose address ends for example with outlook.com, hotmail.com (and others), or even Live.com.
In a few weeks, basic authentication, which only requires a username and password, will no longer be supported. Microsoft intends to replace this with a more modern, and above all more secure, method.
“ To help secure Outlook personal email accounts, starting September 16, 2024, Microsoft will no longer support Basic Auth, the method by which a person provides only their username and password to log in to its account. Starting September 16, 2024, Outlook will require everyone who has a Microsoft email account to use an email or calendar app or the Outlook.com website that supports modern authentication, such as the latest versions of Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird. » explains Microsoft on its website.
Although basic authentication with a username and password has been the norm for many years, the Redmond firm says it has also made it easier for malicious actors.
A new, more modern and more secure authentication method
By ending support for basic authentication, Microsoft plans to force all its email users to migrate to more modern applications. Because to take advantage of modern authentication, based on tokens and multi-factor authentication, users will have no choice but to update their current application or adopt a more recent one.
Microsoft thus indicates that “ The easiest way to ensure you’re ready to use modern authentication is to download one of the free Outlook apps for iOS, Android, Outlook for Mac, or Outlook for Windows “. However, you can use other applications that support this modern authentication method, such as Apple’s Mail client or Thunderbird. As for Microsoft 365 subscribers, they will be able to continue to use the Outlook application included in their subscription. The same goes for users of Outlook 2021 (build 11601.10000 or higher), who are not affected by these changes.
Windows Mail and Calendar at the end of their run, Gmail no longer accessible from Outlook.com
Microsoft also took the opportunity to remind you that the Mail and Calendar applications, installed natively on Windows, will soon be definitively abandoned. By the end of 2024, Mail and Calendar will no longer be available for download from the Microsoft Store. Instead, users will need to adopt the new Outlook for Windows app that will replace them, and which supports modern authentication.
“ We encourage all remaining users of the Mail and Calendar apps on Windows to move to Outlook for Windows as soon as possible. »Indicated the Redmond firm.
Furthermore, although most users access Outlook Webmail from a modern browser, Microsoft had kept a lite version of its webmail for older browsers. This lite version of Outlook will also disappear. It will no longer be supported as of August 19. To continue to access Outlook.com, users must use at least Edge or Chrome in version 79, Firefox in version 78, Safari in version 16 and Opera in version 76. Also note that Microsoft intends to remove the possibility of access to Gmail from the Outlook.com sidebar by June 30. However, Windows and Mac users will still be able to access their Gmail email provided they use Outlook for Windows and Outlook for Mac.
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