The password that opens your email account is the most important password in your entire on-line activity.
A typical hacking scenario goes something like this:
- A person uses their email on an unsecured site
- The site has been compromised and the email addresses for users are stolen
- The stolen emails are distributed across the Internet along with passwords used on the site
- The emails are used to log into the accounts and start farming for emails that contain potential words like Chase Bank, Bank of America, Amazon, order, shipping, and others related to financial transactions
- The words are pulled and the email account is used to log into the various accounts.
- Once access is established, money transactions are initiated and passwords are sometimes changed
- Credit cards are ordered, then used in the persons name.
How long does this take? Seconds.
Email passwords are the most important. Make it hard to remember, don’t save it in your system. Type it every time. Your email password is the most important and should be the hardest to guess.
There is not a human at the other end of the ID theft action. It is all done with software, servers and electronic activity.
It can come from anywhere. The news that So-And-So company’s database was hacked, but, it is NOT a company you work with or shop with, it is TIME TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. Maybe you DON’T use that company, but perhaps your friend does, or your cousin. When friends and family get hacked, you are a potential target via THEIR email.
If someone you know sends you an email, and you open it, but, they have been hacked, you are at risk. If you do open an email and realize it is bogus, close it; close email; change your password.
Remember; Email is the open door to all of your on line identity. The email password is the most important password.