Microsoft has confirmed with a blog post by Alex Garden, the general manager of Xbox Live, that the company has made a number of enhancements to improve security. Garden comments that he thanks everyone who has written in with suggestions on how to improve the security of the service, which he believes is now more an online community than just a service.

With additional improvements and enhancements coming in the future, Garden outlined the following improvements:

* We’ve taken legal action to pull down online posts of gamertags, usernames and passwords gathered from malware or phishing schemes to help protect our members.

*Our Xbox LIVE Spring update included many behind-the-scenes improvements that help us build on security enhancements for the near future.

* We’re sending unique codes to the security phone numbers and secondary email addresses provided by members to verify authorization for Xbox.com purchases or account change attempts not stemming from a member’s trusted device.

* We’re working to reduce market incentives for criminal activity. Engaging in identity theft, trading in stolen accounts and committing credit card fraud are illegal and violate our Terms of Use. Those involved in these activities risk criminal prosecution, account and console bans. That goes for both sellers and buyers of known stolen accounts and content.

In addition, they have added more notifications to members if they think their account might be compromised. The added “proofs” will also help users keep their accounts locked down, and if there is a breach, it also helps Microsoft lock down accounts quickly.

Garden also encourages everyone to update and check the information on their account; also, change your account password regularly with a strong password. Don’t use common passwords because those are the best ways for your account to get compromised.

You can read more here.