If you are anything like me, you will have noticed a worrying email trend. I have, on several occasions recently, received what appear to be spam messages, but sent from someone I know and who would not send unsolicited email in that way.
On each occasion I contacted the individual and found, not only did they not know, but also that they were horrified!
Here is some advice on avoiding this happening to you from Tony Baulch at Ashdown Solutions, one of our members of 'thebestof EatGrinstead'
Email hi-jacking is when a hacker breaks into an email account and uses it to send spam or access private data. Email security goes beyond just having a strong password. There are many ways to protect your email account from hijackers and hackers, many of these methods are just common sense approaches that often get overlooked. Because email is an important method of both business and personal communication, it pays to be proactive in protecting your account.
- Choose a strong password, one that uses letters, numbers and special characters and is at least eight characters long. Don't use a birthday, generic word or a set of characters such as "password" or "12345678." Use a combination of upper- and lower-case letters if your email program allows it.
- Use a unique password for your email account. If you use the same password for all of your online accounts and one account is compromised, then the hacker will have access to everything--including your email account. Use different passwords for different purposes.
- Avoid sharing your email address on the Internet. Placing your address in public forum messages or otherwise spreading it around in full view online is an invitation for spammers to spoof your email. Essentially, spammers collect or harvest email addresses and will then send out spams that appear to come from those addresses. Don't make it easy for spammers to find and use your address.
- Use Internet Security software and keep it up to date. Anti-virus software is better than no protection but to be safe you need a full Internet Security package. Your software should alert you if you click on an infected attachment in your email and prevent your computer and accounts from becoming compromised. Scan your computer periodically with software like this (free for home use) to check for potentially dangerous programs that might have slipped by.
- Use an email program with a spam filter, most email applications have spam filters built-in that will filter out potentially dangerous emails that could give hackers an in-road into your email account or computer. Use the junk button in your email software to flag any spam emails that weren't caught automatically and of course, don't open emails or attachments from unknown senders.
- Avoid giving out your email address or password - you have to assume that most people or web sites asking for your email password are most likely not legitimate. The same goes for phone calls from people who may be pretending to be from Microsoft or BT technical support. If you have any doubt, contact the company directly to verify the request or determine if a web page is real.