More and more email accounts are getting hacked on a daily basis. In this blog we are going to go through how to keep your email account safe and protected.
Changing Your Email Password
The first step you should take is changing your email password, make it strong containing at least 8 characters including upper case letters, numbers and symbols.
Install Anti Spam Tools
Microsoft Outlook has junk mail filter options which can be accessible from the Home tab / junk tab. There you can configure Outlook to filter out spam messages from normal messages. You can also download third party software and we recommend the following:
http://www.spamfighter.com/ (Creates a filter within Outlook)
http://www.mailwasher.net/ (Filters Out All Your Junk)
http://www.eset.co.uk/Home/NOD32-Antivirus (PC Protection)
Change Your Router Password & IP Address
To make your email more secure change your Wireless key and router password to a strong password containing a minimum of 8 characters with symbols, numbers and caps. Changing your IP address regularly also assists in protection.
Don’t Use Free Anti-virus
Having anti-virus is better than not having anti-virus but you not going to get the protection you need for your email with free anti-virus. We recommend Eset Anti-virus which has an Outlook plugin which checks all your mailbox for viruses and spam.
Informing Your Contacts
Inform your contacts that your email address has been compromised. Get them to check their computer for viruses / malware and to put spam filters in place. Get them to send a report from the email in Outlook by clicking on File, Properties. In internet headers get them to highlight the contents of the header and send it to you. This is where you can trace where the email is coming from and the IP address it is sending out on. You can then block the IP address using your computer’s firewall.