What is E-mail???
Email is short for ‘electronic mail’. Like a letter, it is sent by means of the web to a recipient.
An email address is required to get email, and that address is remarkable to the client. A few people use web based applications and some utilization programs on their PC to access and store messages.
One of the most common methods of hacking e-mail has been and remains phishing. And unfortunately attempts to gain access to personal data are not decreasing.
Phishing is a type of computer fraud, which uses social engineering principles to obtain confidential information from the victim. Scammers get in touch with the person and make him share his personal information. The manners in which they are getting along are changing permanently.
One of the popular scammers’ techniques is sending a potential victim messages on behalf of a well-known organization or entity. They can be sent either by email or by other means: social networking, forums, mobile messages mention them.
Such messages usually contain a link (to a fake page) that contains malicious software.
Why scammers attempt to hack personal e-mails
Attackers seek to steal personal data and get into the user’s e-mail in order to find the card/bank account, business information, as well as to get information for political scandals.
Through e-mails a user usually recovers a password to the account in case if it’s lost or if someone has already managed to steal his account.
Accordingly, an attacker who gains access to the mail, can collect a lot of information about the services you use. Therefore, in some cases, breaking the mailbox may actually mean breaking your entire digital life.
How do you protect yourself???
IT-specialists are convinced that most mail phishing attempts happen by stealing or guessing passwords. Below I have managed to bring together tips in order to help you to protect your account. So let’s get started;
Different passwords for each major service
Use different passwords for each account. If you have the same password since you registered on a website – there are more chances that it may already be in the list of stolen passwords.
And the more, accounts of yours have same password, the more data you can lose if this password is stolen. Creating a separate secure password for every account helps to protect you and your digital data.
A long complicated password
“Password”, “qwerty” and “123456” are all examples of horrible and insecure passwords, because everyone knows them, including potential criminals. The longer the password, the harder it is to guess it for scammers and intruders.
Do not use any popular slogan or text to build your password: research shows that people tend to use the same phrases, and you will definitely want a password known only to you.
You can come up with a phrase known only to you, and link to a specific site in order to remember it in a better way. For example, for your e-mail take some phrase, like “My guy Aaron every day sends me a love text”, and then play with it using numbers, symbols, and the first letters of each word – for example, “MgAedsmalt”.
Change passwords regularly.
Chris Pirillo once said “Passwords are like underwear: you don’t let people see it, you should change it very often, and you shouldn’t share it with strangers”. It is always a good habit to change your passwords on a regular basis so as to deter forcefull access to your mail box by hackers who gained access to your previous password.
If you intend to register on a dating site, or in some dubious service, it is better to create a second (or even third or fourth) mailbox; so as not to regret later.
Keep passwords in a safe place
I remain
Oruru Aaron Steven
Mbale High School
0787095951/0774381256
