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How to secure your Xbox account

Cody Perez
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Xbox Live requires a lot of personal info if you want to play online and purchase games. Your email address, payment info, game purchases, and more are all stored online. As such, protecting that information is vital, as there are hackers out there with poor intentions who want nothing more than to find out those details.

Add security info to your account

How to Secure Xbox Account
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While you can’t control what they do, you can control what you do to secure your Xbox account. The unfortunate part of playing games on Xbox One is that Microsoft hasn’t actually done the best job of offering you ways to protect your info. In the era of two-factor authentication for your phone, Twitter, and even the Nintendo Switch, it would seem like a no-brainer to have this on Xbox as well, but that isn’t the case.

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The only thing Microsoft helps you do is add security info to your Xbox Live profile. Start by heading to the Microsoft login page to access your account management settings on a web browser. If you are on Xbox One, go to your Settings and then Account. From there, log in and scroll down to the security section. Select to update the Security contact info option.

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Here, you can add either an email address, phone number, or both to your account. We highly recommend that you do both to best protect yourself, but even one of them is better than none. Add a new email address different from the one you created the account with and a new private phone number you have easy access to.

You will receive instructions for verifying each new contact method that you set up on your email or phone, so complete that task and you will be good to go. These methods are used for recovering your account, notifying you of unauthorized changes, and quickly addressing any issues. Both are recommended in case you ever lose access to either of them.

Never share your password

That is the extent of what Microsoft lets you do for your account. The rest is up to you, so there are some precautions that you should make. For starters, make sure you have a strong password on Xbox Live that contains no obvious info like dates or locations. You should never share this password with anyone for any reason, and it should be different from other passwords like for your email.

Avoid public Wi-Fi and devices

It is also best that you avoid signing in on your Xbox account at public Wi-Fi locations that anyone has access to, like a school or cafe. Hackers frequent these locations to attack devices directly or steal private information like email, phone number, and credit card info, without you even knowing.

What to do if you are hacked

If someone ever does hack your account, be sure to change your password immediately to something entirely different and contact Microsoft support, if necessary. Double-check any email addresses and credit cards you have on your Xbox Live account to ensure they aren’t affected, too. Contact your bank if something looks unusual.

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Cody Perez
Cody Perez
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Cody is that stereotypical nerdy otaku guy. He loves everything Japanese from niche visual novels like 999 and Kara no Shoujo…
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