Microsoft has confirmed that hackers were able to access customers’ web-based email accounts for a period of three months at the beginning of the year. Between January 1 and March 28, unknown hackers hit the accounts of various Microsoft email services.

The company is in the process of sending notifications to those who have been affected by the issue and it recommends users change their account passwords.

Microsoft says that a “limited subset” of consumer accounts where affected, and the hackers have now been stopped. The attack affected @msn.com, @hotmail.com and @outlook.com email addresses, but Microsoft is keen to stress that while the hackers may have been able to access email addresses, folder names and email subject lines, the content of emails — including attachments — was not accessed.

Microsoft has not said how many accounts were affected by the incident, nor has it given any indication of who may have been responsible. In addition to the email sent to customers, Microsoft’s only further comment is a statement in which it says: ” We addressed this scheme, which affected a limited subset of consumer accounts, by disabling the compromised credentials and blocking the perpetrators’ access”.

For more information see:

Microsoft: Hackers compromised support agent’s credentials to access customer email accounts

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