Hotmail Users Are the Target of the Just Checked HITS 01.12 Leak

HEROIC analysts identified a combolist called Just Checked HOTMAIL HITS 01.12, uploaded to Telegram in December 2024. As the name suggests, the 579 records in this file, email addresses, plaintext passwords, and associated URLs, had reportedly just been tested and confirmed to still work at the time of posting. Why This Is Dangerous: A freshly verified list of Hotmail logins is valuable to attackers precisely because it removes the guesswork. Rather than testing thousands of old, possibly dead credentials, buyers of this file get 579 confirmed working email and password pairs they can act on immediately. What Was Exposed in the HOTMAIL HITS 01.12 Leak: Email addresses. Plaintext passwords. URLs linked to each login. Why This Matters: Email accounts are often the master key to a person's online identity, since they're used to reset passwords on banking, shopping, and social media accounts. A confirmed working Hotmail login gives an attacker a direct path to locking the real owner out and taking over connected accounts one by one. How Just Checked Combolists Are Made: Sellers who label a file just checked or hits have typically run an automated checker against a larger raw list, filtering out dead logins and keeping only the ones that authenticate successfully. That filtering process is what turns a bulk, unreliable combolist into a smaller, higher-value file like this one. Check if You Are Affected: If you use a Hotmail or Outlook address, it's worth checking whether your login shows up in this or any other verified combolist. HEROIC's free breach scanner searches more than 400 billion leaked records so you can see your exposure and secure your account before it's used against you.