Ah, passwords. Most people are still surprised to learn that a majority of users continue to use common passwords such as 1234 or their last name. Microsoft know this and hence are beefing up security of their popular web-based e-mail, Hotmail. Microsoft are changing their password policy which will soon forbid the use of particularly common passwords. What this means is anyone who creates a new Hotmail account or changes the password of their existing account won't be able to use obvious passwords like "123456" or "password."

The new security system will block common phrases such as "ilovecats." In the near future, Microsoft could also extend this ban on obvious passwords to existing accounts. If an account is compromised, and that account sends you spam or a fraudulent e-mail, you can report that their account has been compromised. The feature is called "My friend's been hacked!," and this will block their account so the spammer can no longer user it, when your friend tries to log in the next time they'll go through an account recovery process.

I now await every service that uses a password to implement these features. Your move, World.