Why Your Email Is Your Most Important Account
If someone asked you which of your online accounts is the most important one to protect, you would probably say your bank account. It's a pretty good guess.But, the real answer, for basically everyone, is actually your email account. Your email account is like the master key to your whole online life,and hackers know that and will use that. Below, learn about your email, what hackers can do with your email account, and how to protect your emil account.
The reset link problem
Think about what happens whenever you forget a password on a website.You click the button “forgot password,” and the website sends a reset link to your email. You click the reset link and then set a new password, and then you're back into the website and back to normal.
Now flip that around. If an attacker controls your email, they can click “forgot password” on your bank, your shopping accounts, your social media, and anything else tied to that email. Each reset link lands in the inbox they now control. One by one, they take over your accounts, and you cannot stop them because the resets look completely legitimate.
But, think of that in a different way. If a hacker has your email, then they can click “forgot password” on your bank account, your shopping accounts, your social media accounts and anything else which is connected to your email. All of the reset links go to the email the hacker now controls and they can see each of the reset links. They can take over all of your accounts, and you can't stop them because the resets of your accounts look really real.
That's why your email account is the most important account you have.It’s not just one account: it’s the account that can control all of your other accounts.
What attackers do with a stolen email account
If a hacker hacks into your email, the hacker can:
- Reset passwords on your other accounts using those reset links.
- Read your messages to learn about your bank, your contacts, and your habits.
- Find receipts, statements, and personal details for identity theft.
- Message your friends and family while pretending to be you, to scam them too.
- Lock you out by changing your email password.
If a hacker hacks into your email account, it will go really bad for you.This is why your email should be really protected.
How to lock down your email
Because your email account is just so important, it should have the most security and be the most secure:
- A strong, unique password used nowhere else. If your email password is shared with any other website, if that website gets hacked, they could expose your email.
- Two-factor authentication turned on. This adds a second layer of protection, so just a stolen password is not enough to get in.
- A recovery method you control, like a backup phone number or a second email, kept up to date.
- Alertness to phishing, since attackers often target email logins directly with fake login pages.
These couple of things make your email way harder for hackers to hack into.
Where a password manager fits
Your email account’s password should be the password which is the strongest, most unique and the most random. A password manager makes that really easy. It generates a long, random password for your email account and stores it safely, so you never have to reuse it or remember it at all .
There is one thing which you need to think about.You still need to remember the master password to your password manager without email resets. So, your master password needs to be something strong, but something that you can actually remember, and you should protect it really carefully.
With HatePassword, your vault is encrypted on your device, and your master password never leaves your device. That means your stored email password stays protected, and only you can unlock the vault that holds it.
Treat email like the master key it is
Basically, give your email account the strongest, most unique password that you have, and do things like turn on two-factor authentication and stay alert for anyone trying to trick you into logging in on a fake page.Everything else you do to make sure that your accounts are safe and secure all depend on your email, and if your email isn't protected and safe, then all of your accounts won't be protected and safe either.Your email account is really important. Don't treat it like it isn't.