Protect Outlook Emails With Strong Passwords & Security Settings

If you’re like most of us, your Outlook email account is full of important personal and business information. The last thing you want to happen is to have a stranger access your email account—or worse yet, to get locked out of your Outlook email account with no way to get back in.

It’s no secret that hackers are after your email data. We read about new data breaches every day. And often those data breaches come about by means of email. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights keeps a list of health information breaches. In July of 2018 it listed 22 breaches affecting thousands of individuals. Of those 22 breaches, seven (or nearly a third) involved email.

Fortunately, there are several Outlook security measures that you can take to protect your Outlook email. In this tutorial, we’ll show you what you need to know about Outlook security. Learn how to choose strong passwords and keep them secure. Learn how to use the Outlook security settings. And finally, discover some Microsoft email security best practices such as how set up user authentication.

Now let’s dive into our tutorial on Microsoft email security.

Basic Email Best Practices for Strong Security

The first step in keeping your Outlook email secure is to put some email security best practices in place. These practices apply to most email software including Microsoft Outlook

Here are six ways you can help protect your Outlook email account:

1. Use a Password

Unless you’re using Outlook on a Microsoft exchange server, you can set Outlook to prompt you for a password each time it opens (see instructions below). A password prompt happens automatically for an Outlook.com account since you set one up when you signed up for Outlook.com. But you may want to set a password up separately for Outlook that’s part of Office 365.

Note: If you’re accessing your Outlook email at work or at school, you’re probably on a Microsoft exchange server. Contact your system administrator to find out how to change your password.

2. Pick a Strong Password

When choosing a password for MS Outlook or your Microsoft account, be sure to pick a strong one. Avoid passwords that can easily be guessed such as the names of friends, family members or pets. Birthdays, addresses, and phone numbers are also poor choices for passwords since the information may be available elsewhere.

When it comes to passwords, longer passwords are harder for intruders to guess. The best passwords include a combination of upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. Stay away from stand-alone password generators, which are sometimes set up disreputable parties to gain access to password information.

Also, make sure your Outlook password is different from your other passwords. If a third party should happen to get access to your account, you don’t want them to have access to all your accounts.

3. Store Passwords Securely

Once you’ve chosen a strong password, be sure to store it securely. An online password manager such as Dashlane, Keeper, or Sticky Password are good options for keeping your passwords away from prying eyes. Make sure to choose a strong and memorable password for your password manager—you’ll have to remember this one. Here are some other password managers and tutorials on how to use them:

Whatever you do, don’t keep your password on a Post-It note stuck to your laptop, especially if you work from a shared space. Also, don’t keep password information on a list in a Word or Excel doc on your PC unless that document is password protected. If your PC happens to get stolen, you don’t want the thief to find all your password information at once!

4. Change the Password Periodically

Experts disagree about how often you should change your password, but they do agree that sometimes changing passwords can keep others from using your account. That way, if someone does get a hold of your password, there’s a chance that the information they’ve got isn’t current. Of course, changing your password isn’t a substitute for picking a strong password.

Not only do you need to change your Outlook inbox password regularly, if you’re using Office 365 you should also update your Microsoft account password regularly. Your Microsoft account password is important because it’s the key to using all your Microsoft products including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so on.

5. Add Two-Step Verification

Two-step verification is a type of user authentication that uses two forms of identification to confirm your identity. Forms of identification may include your email address or your phone number.

Two-step verification is used when you try to do sensitive tasks such as reset your password as well as when you try to retrieve your account information. Typically a code is sent to either your phone or your email. To access your account, you’ll need to enter the code as well as your password. The purpose of two-step verification is to keep someone else from accessing or changing your account.

6. Keep Outlook (and Your Browser) Updated

Software updates are in important part of keeping your data secure. Updates are often published to enhance software security or to fix security issues that arise. By not keeping your Outlook software and your browser up-to-date you could be leaving them vulnerable.

How to Protect Your Outlook Email Account

The steps in this section are specific to Outlook 365. If you’ve got an older version of Outlook, work on Outlook.com, or if you access your Outlook through a Microsoft Exchange server, these steps may not work for you.

Step 1. Set a Password for Your Outlook Inbox

Did you know that you can set Outlook up to prompt you for a password each time you open it? Here what to do:

• Start with MS Outlook open and click the File tab on the left of the inbox
• The Outlook Account Information window appears
• Click on the Account Settings button and choose Account Settings again from the drop-down menu. The Account Settings dialog box displays
• Select the Data Files tab. You’ll see various types of Outlook data files (.pst files) including the archive file and inbox file. To have Outlook prompt you for a password when you open your inbox, double-click on the inbox data file. The Outlook Data File box appears
• Click the Change Password button. At the prompt, type your new password twice and click OK. Click OK again

Note: If you don’t currently have an inbox password set up, leave the space for your old password blank.

Important: Microsoft won’t be able to retrieve this password for you if you lose it, so be sure to save it in a secure place.

Step 2. Change Your Password

Passwords should be updated on a regular basis. In this section I’ll show you how to update the password for your Outlook inbox and the password for your Microsoft account.

How to Change Your Outbox Inbox Password

Once you’ve created a password for your inbox, you’ll need to update it regularly. From the Outlook Account Information window, select Account Settings > Accounting Settings. The Account Settings dialog box appears:

Select the Data Files tab. Double-click on the inbox data file (inbox.pst). The Outlook Data File box appears:

Click the Change Password button. At the prompt, type your current password in the Old password field. Type your new password in the New password field and again in the Verify password field.

Note: Be sure to keep this password in a secure place where you can access it if needed. Microsoft doesn’t keep this information and can’t retrieve it should you lose it.

When you’re done entering a new password, click OK and then Close. You’ve just changed your password.