Consider the case below: You get a notification from the mail server of your organization alerting you that your password has been changed and that you must confirm it. To your knowledge, however, you have not updated your password! There are a variety of potential causes for the password change. Was it a virus, and if so, on which systems, that provided an attacker with the necessary information to reset the password?

Let's pretend your company's mail server sends you a notification asking you to verify a password change. However, you haven't changed the password recently. What happened that necessitated a new code? To what malware and on what machines may an attacker have gained access to reset the password?

Imagine the following: You get an email from the mail server of your firm informing you that the password you use has been updated. However, you haven't changed the password in quite some time. Why? What caused the password to be changed? How was it that the password was reset by the attacker? Which kinds of computers did the virus attack?

Let's imagine the mail server for your employer sends you a message alerting you that the password for your account has been changed and that you need to confirm this. In this scenario, you would need to confirm the new password. To the best of your knowledge, the password has not been changed in any way. What may have caused the requirement for the password to be changed? What systems were infected with what sort of malware, and how did the hacker get access to the information they required to properly reset the password?

I had never heard of authenticating a user with two separate factors before, and the idea fascinates me. What kind of an effect does this have on the level of security that people may expect for their passwords?