How do I protect my Email Account from Hackers? – Top 6 Ways

Thinking about protecting your emails from unethical attacks, thereby wondering how do I protect my email account from hackers? Looking for a safe and easy method for the same? Not to take worries at all, just go through the write-up and you will encounter a method that will securely prevent email account from hacking.

Emails are playing a major role in our daily lives when it comes to email communication, family catch-ups and online registrations. As a result, lot of sensitive data is shared through email. This includes proprietary business information, personal life details, medical records, and financial statements.

However, safeguarding email account is important if you need to keep crucial data private. So, walk along for the tips shared further on how to protect email and recognize the signs that it may have been compromised.

How to know if Email has been hacked?

In order to protect emails properly, it is important to identify the signs of hacked account. Some of them are –

• Password Reset: Unexpected password reset emails or notifications declare that somebody has attempted to hack email account or linked accounts.
• Unable to Login: If your personal password is not working, then there are chances that the account details are changed.
• Unrecognized emails in Sent Folder: Make sure to check sent folder regularly to detect any unfamiliar emails. If you find any unusual emails, then it could be a sign that the account has been used to send spam or malicious emails.
• Receiving Complaints from Contacts: If the email account has friendly, family, or business contacts and they are reporting for spammy or malicious emails through your address, and it is likely that your account is hacked.
• Changes in Settings: If you encounter any changes in email settings such as different recovery options, new forwarding rules and disabled 2FA (two-factor authentication), are common procedure used by malicious users to cover up their tracks.
• Login Alert Notifications: Security alerts about logins from unknown location or devices notifying the hidden attacker in your inbox.
• Account login using Strange IPs: Check the email’s activity details and track unrecognized IP addresses and locations. These are the red flags suggest that someone could be accessing your account without authorization.

Tips to Protect Email Account from Hackers

There are few practical measures available which you can use to prevent your email account from hacking or any other malicious attacks. Some of them are discussed here –

Apply Strong Password

Setting strong password of an email account is a first steps to defense again unethical threats. A good solid password is hard to crack. Make sure not to use “password123”, “qwerty”, etc. Instead, password should be a mix of uppercase and lowercase of letters, symbols, and numbers.

Also, keep changing your password every three months. This will protect your account and safeguard your sensitive emails stored in the same.

Enable 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication)

There are numerous email providers such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail and Outlook provides two-step verification to improve account security. When it gets enabled, a user needs to verify the identity during login.

Common 2FA techniques include:

• Security code will be sent to phone via calls or text messages.
• Codes created by authenticator apps such as Google Authenticator.
• Verification codes sent to alternate email addresses.

Few email providers supports physical security keys whereas others is programmed with biometric verification. For instance, Apple Mail allows using Face ID or Touch ID to authorize email account. This additional layer of security means that even if someone contains your password, they won’t be able to gain access of email account without passing out second verification step.

Run Software Update Reguarly

Make sure that your operating system is updated regularly. Because regular software update helps patching security flaws that could put your email account at risk of hacking. It is important to address them to prevent your email profile as well as data from hijacking. Additionally, new software updates introduce advanced security measures or improvements to existing ones to prevent from latest threats.

Use VPN while Checking Emails

A high-quality VPN such as Surfshark improves your email security by encrypting all the data files. After applying the encryption, any essential information in your email messages – be it a trade secret, hotel booking or private chat becomes unreachable to anyone who is thinking about intercepting your data.

Block Spam & Unauthorized Senders

Spam emails are risky to open. They often include malicious links or attachments that could infect your device with different types of viruses such as malware, ransomware, or Trojans. So, to safeguard your emails, set up a spam filter and block any doubtful senders to make sure that you don’t come into contact with harmful content accidentally. Many email applications has a “report spam” option that is useful in informing the email service provider about potential spam, protecting yourself and others by doing so.

Epilogue

Email has been integral part for both our personal and professional lives. It is important to understand different ways to protect email account from malicious threats. Once the sign of hack is tracked, then know how to keep your emails secure, and protecting it will become an easy routine. Also, you may try MacMister Email Backup Software Mac & Windows that contains 30+ email sources for the same such as iCloud, AOL, Gmail, G Suite, BTinternet, Yahoo, Rediffmail, and more. You may choose the desired email source and save emails into 15+ saving options. The app is available in Mac & Windows software versions both. Also, it has a free demo edition that allow users to export, transfer, download, and save first 25 email messages with attachments from a desired email service for free.