5 ways to protect your email account from hackers

Rachael Sigee tells you how to get inbox clever
Secure your inbox
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Rachael Sigee3 November 2016

Email is the engine that keeps London offices ticking over. For Hillary Clinton, Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin, sending emails on shared computers and accounts might have been a time-saver but has now led to an FBI investigation. Our Government is also taking email seriously. This week it announced a new £1.9 billion cyber defence plan.

Even if you’re not running for office, like Clinton, it’s worth keeping a check on your inbox, if only to avoid that sinking feeling when you worry that you’ve accidentally sent a caustic message to the wrong person. Here’s how to get inbox clever.

Two-step security

Hillary’s campaign chair John Podesta fell foul of hacking this week after being asked to change his password by fake account no-reply@accounts.googlemail.com. Two-factor authentication might have given him extra protection — it means that before you can change anything on your account you need to go through a second check, such as a message to your phone. Cyber-security expert Dr Jessica Barker thinks this is key for personal security but 70 per cent of people in the UK don’t know what it is. It’s available on Gmail, Outlook and Facebook among others, so turn it on.

Into the breach

Have I Been Pwned? is a website set up by cyber-security pro Troy Hunt and is a free tool to check whether details have been compromised by data breaches of companies like those at Adobe, MySpace and LinkedIn. Enter your email and the site uses aggregated personal data that has been hacked and posted in the public domain to tell you if you’ve been a victim so you can change your password.

Separation anxiety

Elliot Rose, a cyber-security expert at PA Consulting, says: “Companies have one public-facing email account but for sensitive things you have completely segregated internal email systems.”

You too should keep things separate — once you’ve started sending personal emails from work you run the risk of being included in a mammoth list of un-Bcc’d potential attendees for a hen party, and suddenly your email is out there for anyone.

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Ace your passwords

Whatever the security issue it nearly always comes down to passwords. Emily Orton, a director at cyber-security company Darktrace, says good password hygiene is the single most important thing we can do to protect ourselves: DavidBeckham123 just won’t cut it anymore.

Passwords should be markedly different for each account. Nicky Hudson, from the National Cyber Security Centre, explains: “Email accounts are the key to your life — password resets for all other services get sent there so you should use a different password for your email to other services.”

Never assume you’re safe

Orton says that anyone can be a target. “There are far too many organisations that are still burying their heads in the sand thinking hacking won’t happen to them. Culturally you have to assume that you will be infiltrated at some point, if you haven’t been already and you don’t know about it.” She admits we’re all guilty of it but it’s worth making contingency plans for hacking now.

Follow Rachael Sigee on Twitter: @littlewondering

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