You might not take the security of your email seriously because you might be thinking that nobody would want to see correspondence between you and members of your family. In truth, there’s more connected to your email than you might realize.
There are normally 3 reasons that a hacker would want access to your email.
#1 Havoc on Your Account
The first reason involves a sort of vandalism. A hacker can change your password, gain personal information stored in your profile and send email to your contacts. This is how friends can get the message that you’re trapped in Belize and need money wired to come home. Not good. They could also delete all your contacts and messages so you don’t have access to them anymore.
This can be a serious problem. When you sign up for most services, they’ll send you login and account details through your email. Without that information, you won’t be able to get access to your accounts. If your password is changed so you don’t have access to your email, you might not be able to restore your accounts.
#2 Gaining Sensitive Information
With access to your email account, a hacker could gain access to other accounts connected with the email. They can not only stop you from getting past emails. They could contact the accounts from places like your bank or credit cards that are linked through email. Hackers could use that information to change passwords, change the address and request new cards to that new address.
Much of your personal information is available in your email accounts, and hackers can gain that information quite easily. With control of your main email account, they have access to other vital accounts. For example, Miriam’s email account is hacked. The hacker contacts her bank online and asks for a new password. The bank sends an email to her asking that she verify the request. The hacker clicks the verification and has access to all her money.
#3 Spamming Your Contacts
Some hackers can use your email address to send an email to someone you know asking for money. This has happened a lot. The hacker sends all your contacts an urgent email saying that you lost your phone, and you’ve been in an accident. Your friends and family are worried, so they’ll immediately send money to the place selected by the hacker. They have no reason to suspect that it’s not you emailing them.
They can also send emails to places you do business with asking for information about you that will help them hack into more areas of your life. They’ll pose as you to get your account information from third parties.
Protecting Yourself
Your bank accounts, in fact all accounts, should have a unique passwords. Some people recommend using a separate email address for your financial accounts and your social media. Make abso-darn-lutely sure you’re not using the same password for every single account you have. Have extra security measures in place like two-step authentication on your vital bank or credit card accounts.
If you notice that you have a virus, or your computer is running slowly, you can contact us at Patient Computer Help to remove the virus.