6 Ways To Secure Your Email Account This 2022
An email account is an account where users can send and receive emails. One can use an email account’s email address to identify a person and validate other online accounts. Moreover, a person can use email accounts for schoolwork, job tasks, and gaming transactions.
Email accounts are convenient for many, even this 2022. The adaptation of the automation process today further helps use them with ease. One can send and receive messages with just a few clicks, unlike when people only used traditional fax and post offices.
However, an email account is a personal account one can make online that is vulnerable to other entities’ hacking and intervention.
Do you find your current email account security fragile? Look no further because this article will give you some tips to help you secure it:
Utilize A Private Email Platform
Have you noticed the advertisements you receive on your Gmail account’s promotion section? Do they somehow remind you of the last websites you browsed and messages that you sent to your colleagues and friends online?
Many email accounts that people own are under ‘The big tech.’ That includes the most popular companies today like Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Apple. They provide incredible innovations in technology but allegedly sell out their users’ browsing history and other data to advertisers.
You can outright translate it into them selling your account security for monetization. Seeing advertisements on your email account related to your recent actions online isn’t coincidental. Other entities can see your personal information even without your consent.
For that reason, you should consider using a private email platform. Private email platforms like Vemamail feature similar functions to Gmail accounts, but their robust security for users is a quality worth checking out. There will be a payment for using their software, but the fact that they won’t sell your information to anyone else is worth paying.
Purchase A Virtual Private Network (VPN)
A VPN creates a secure private connection when you use the Internet. They encrypt your data to prevent other entities from hacking your social media accounts and stealing your data. Also, they can disguise your whereabouts, including your browsing history and location, by hiding your I.P address, which identifies the device you use.
When you browse the Internet, you leave digital footprints or trails of data. There are two main types of digital footprints:
a.) Active– the information you promptly give online. (e.g., answering an online survey or liking an adorable picture on Facebook)
b.) Passive– the information you leave behind without knowing, including your I.P address, browsing history, and approximate location
Websites that you visited and hackers can take advantage of your passive footprints. They can take your data and hack social media accounts, including your Gmail, for their self-interest. So, to ensure security, consider using a VPN.
Check Your Login History
An email account saves the recent logins of its user. They show the time and devices used. By checking your account’s login history, you can determine if someone else is using your Gmail without you knowing.
Review Your Email Account’s Security Check-up
Your email account’s security feature can provide you with notifications and suggestions to help secure your account. It may include showing the previous devices you no longer use, but it may also save your email account information that must be removed. Conduct a security check-up often to make sure that the only devices saving your email information today are the only ones recognized as authorized devices.
Add A Recovery Email Address
Despite being mindful of your email account security, you may lose your access to it. It can be because you have forgotten your password, given that you save the login information on the device you use that you didn’t bother much remembering it. A recovery email address can help you recover access to your account.
You can add the address of your loved one or a friend – someone you can trust for your recovery email address. Your email account manager will send a confirmation email to that account for verification.
Change Your Password Monthly
Changing your password every month can help secure your email account. That way, hackers eager to take it may find it challenging to guess your email password. Adapt the email account management suggestions like adding special characters and capital letters to your password to increase its strength. Consider making it way longer too. Make sure that you remember it, by the way. Your password might get too strong that you can no longer log in.
Conclusion
An email account is vital for work and may contain personal information critical for your security and reputation. Cybersecurity attacks by entities may take advantage of this data and monetize it without thinking of your welfare. Consider securing your email account to ensure that no one else can do so.