Protecting E-mail Passwords
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Monday, February 8th, 2010 (No comments yet) |
The one thing most people completely underestimate is the value of their personal webmail accounts. You think your bank or web store is important? Well, have you ever noticed those oh-so-helpful "Forgot my password" functions? What do they do when you click that? They send you your password or they reset it at the least. Either way, if someone gets access to your e-mail account, they completely control everything you have on the Internet.
Besides the security risks, what about all your personal information? How many e-mails do you store online and how many years back do they go? Information about friends, family, business contacts; all things a bad guy who wants to do you harm could use.
Maybe you have a medical condition or a secret of some kind. Someone can use that for blackmail. What if they don't do anything that sinister and just impersonate you instead? If they send a virus from your account or scam your family into thinking you need money, chances are that your contacts will fall for it since it appears to have come from you.
That's why it's important to make sure that your e-mail account has one of your strongest passwords among your online accounts (if not THE strongest). But to save time, here's the major rules:
- Make it long (8 or more characters)
- Make it random-ish. Avoid properly spelled dictionary words (in any language).
- Write it down if you have to, but don't store it on your computer (unless you encrypt it first) and definitely don't store or send it using the Internet or any service on it.
- Practice good login security
- Lastly, and most importantly, never share your passwords
