What to do if Your Email is Hacked?
1. Change Password Immediately
Change your last password immediately and create a long, strong, and unique password with a combination of numbers, letters, and special characters.
2. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
3. Check Recovery Options
Ensure your phone number and backup email are correct, and make sure the hacker didn’t change them. You can recover your account using the recovery options.
4. Deep scan your PC for Malware
You should update your antivirus software with the latest updates and run a full system scan on your device to detect the hidden malware threats stealing your sensitive information.
5. Review Account Activity
Check for unauthorized logins or changes in your email settings to see if someone is accessing your email from an unknown location, device, or IP address. You can sign out your ID from another device if it is still logged in.
6. Remove Suspicious Forwarding Rules
Check your device for unknown forwarding rules and delete them immediately. Hackers can still get your emails if your emails are automatically forwarded to other devices. Hence, check and remove unknown email forwarding rules.
7. Notify Your Contacts
Make sure to inform your contacts about your email account hack incident and warn them about potential phishing emails. Hackers exploit your email address to send phishing emails to your contacts. By informing them, you can save them from scams and malware attacks.
8. Secure Linked Accounts
9. Contact Your Email Provider
What are the Signs of Hacked Email Accounts?
1. Can't Log In
The first thing you will notice is that your password is no longer working, and recovery options are failing to give you an OTP to sign in using an alternate option.
2. Unexpected Emails Sent
3. Password Reset Requests
You will see notifications, messages, and alerts on your device for changing passwords without you doing anything. It is the doing of someone who is trying to access your account without your permission.
4. Missing Emails
5. New Email Forwarding Rules
6. Changes to Account Settings
The first thing hackers do after hacking your account is to change the account setting, which involves the recovery of emails, phone numbers, and security questions. They do so to prevent you from accessing your own account. These changes signify malicious interventions in your account.
7. Spam or Phishing Emails in Sent Folder
8. Unusual Activity from Linked Accounts
What can Hackers do with a Hacked Email Account?
- Access personal details such as name, address, and phone number.
- Reset passwords for other accounts such as banking, social media, etc.
- Hackers can create a fake ID and impersonate you to scam others
- Gain access to work-related or confidential business emails
- Use your email to reset passwords on linked accounts
- Tricking your contacts into clicking malware-infected links
- Pretend to be you and ask for money or sensitive information
- Access saved bank statements, credit card details, or invoices
- Change payment details in financial emails to steal money
- Blackmail you and threaten to leak personal and sensitive information
- Demand ransom to give your email access back to you
How to Prevent Email Account Hacking?
Emails are an integral part of our daily lives these days. These are connected to our bank accounts, social media, business, and shopping accounts. These are all personal and private means of a person. If hackers have your account credentials, then they can access your personal, financial, and sensitive information. Here are some common examples of what hackers can do by hacking your email account:
Use a Strong Password
Passwords offer the first line of defense to your critical access points and prevent malicious actors from infiltrating them and doing any malicious activity. So, you must create and use long, strong, and unique passwords to safeguard your email access. Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special symbols to create the password. Avoid using easily guessable words and phrases such as your name, birthdate, address123, etc. Also, make sure to use separate passwords for each account instead of using a single password to protect different access points.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication
Beware of Phishing Emails
Keep Your Device Secure
Download and install a performance antivirus software to protect your device from various types of cyber threats such as malware, phishing, trojans, and zero-day threats. Update your antivirus software regularly and enable the real-time protection feature to protect your device around the clock. Make sure it has all the advanced features, such as behavior analysis, heuristic analysis, and automatic updates, so that it can proactively deal with ever-evolving malware threats.
Always Check Email Security Settings
Avoid using Public Wi-Fi Connections
Enable Spam Filters
Make sure you always keep your email filter on to block and check the malicious and spam emails blocked. It will help you avoid spam and phishing emails coming from suspicious senders.
