Hackers remain active during Covid-19 Pandemic

Hackers remain active during Covid-19 Pandemic

 

If you have ever had your email hacked, then it is time to up your game against the fight with hackers. Here are a couple of things you can do to help secure your e-mail accounts.

 

 

1. Change your email account password. Make your password as strong as possible. Never use the same password for more than one website or account. We like to advise our clients to come up with a sentence that they can remember. Example: I went to the store to buy 20 rolls of toilet paper and they were sold out! Password: iWtTstb20roTP@twSO! What you can do is to use the first letter of each word in the sentence. You can change the case on them and potentially change the “and” to the @ symbol to change it up. Remember that the longer your password is, the harder it is for hackers to figure out. There are password managers out there like Last Pass, 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper, and many others that you can use. They will also help you choose secure passwords through their password generators.

2. Enable Two-Factor Authentication. (2FA) Not all email hosting companies provide this option but if they do, it would be wise to enable it. Two-factor authentication requires more than just your password to access your account. You will receive a code via text or through apps like Authy, Google Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, etc. to enter as a secondary line of defense.

3. Change or turn off security questions. Most email hosting companies will ask you security questions that you can answer in order to gain access to your account in the event that you have forgotten or locked yourself out of your account. If you cannot turn off these security questions you may want to provide bogus answers. If you provide the correct answers there is a very good chance a hacker could search online for those answers and gain access to your account.

Summary:

Don’t wait until your account gets hacked in order to implement these changes to your email account or accounts. Remember that if your account gets hacked it also affects the people in your contacts list as most times those lists will be harvested upon gaining access to your account. Be smart and get ahead of these hackers before they get you!