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Use a strong password: Your email password is the only thing standing between your private personal information and Identity theft.Instead, you can follow these tips to mitigate the risks: You should always be concerned about your privacy when using email, but you don’t have to abandon it entirely to keep your information secure. As such, even when you delete your original email, you aren’t removing all the other copies that exist. And each server stores multiple copies of every message, with additional copies stored on the sender and recipient’s devices. This is because email is not a direct form of communication.Įmail messages pass through numerous servers, including those of the various Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and mail clients involved. In fact, some have compared it to a postcard because its contents are viewable by anyone who happens upon the message during its travels. Even without being hacked, email is one of the least secure forms of communication. One reason cybercriminals are going after email accounts is due to the way email works. There’s even a website where you can check to see if your account information has been compromised. Because it is a good money-maker, email hacking has grown into a huge industry.
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When someone gains access to your email username and password, that person can easily collect enough personal information about you-usually via people-search sites-to steal your identity and damage your online reputation. Keep reading to learn more about email privacy, including 13 tips you can follow to protect your valuable information. This actually happened to a Vox journalist as a result of someone hacking her email account.īut what if you don’t have a lot of money saved? Are you still at risk? The unfortunate truth is that-regardless of your net worth-cybercriminals are targeting your email account, and you need to know how to defend yourself. Imagine someone emailing your bank (from your own email address), posing as you in order to withdraw large sums of money. This post has been modified to reflect new information since its original publication.
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