Although you may not make international headlines if the contents of your emails are compromised or made public, this is still a situation you should work tirelessly to avoid. When you're the victim of a hacking, you feel violated, vulnerable, and you could have your whole world turned completely upside down if personally identifiable information was stolen during the process.
Here's what to do if you're hacked and how to protect yourself from the powerful forces of Internet evil thereafter:
1. Immediately Change Your Passwords And Check Email Settings
If you're still able to log in, change your passwords at once. Make sure they're long and difficult to guess, and be careful where you write them down, if you choose to do so. Try surrounding a sentence with a relevant numerical sequence, such as "1776mYcountrywasfree1987", substituting 1987 for the year you bought your first car or some other important time. Randomly capitalize a letter or two and always mix characters and numbers. If you're creative, you can easily think up something you'll never forget, but that nobody else would be able to guess. Also, check to ensure your email settings weren't changed on you during the attack; a hacker could be forwarding all your messages to another email address, where they can be scrutinized for pertinent data.
2. Run A Security Scan On Your Machine(s)
Check every machine associated with the hacked email account for malware and other types of threats. If you discover anything, go ahead and change your password again, as the first change could have been recorded by the malicious files present. Get in the habit of changing your password every time you run a security scan.
3. Get In Touch With Your Email Provider
Shoot an email off to Microsoft, Google, or whatever company runs your email program. Offer them as much info regarding the hack as you can, because they might be able to use it to protect others in the future. Take advantage of any advice their site offers on how to avoid being the object of a hacker's attack again.
4. Make A List Of What's Potentially Been Compromised
Anything is subject to mischief or malice during a hack, and you need to know what's been affected. The individuals on your contact list, for example, could be exploited, or you could have emailed sensitive information or pictures to someone. The hacker might also now know where you work, bank, and shop. Identify the damage as clearly and accurately as possible and determine what restorative measures you can take.
5. Contact Your Bank And Other Important Businesses
Let your bank know what's happened so they can take precautionary measures to protect your account(s). Any other company you deal with online should also be notified, with changes being made where needed. Also, send an apology to your contact list, with details of what transpired. It's important that they take precautionary measures, too.
6. Start Thinking Like The Bad Guys
Hackers find all kinds of ways to accomplish their nefarious goals, and learning to think like they do can help you stay out of their clutches. Phishing, a clever tactic to get people to offer up information under false pretenses, for example, is one tool in their arsenals you can work proactively to avoid. Never enter any information, unless you're on a main site itself, as opposed to one promising to connect you to the target site. In fact, before you do anything online, stop and ask yourself if a hacker could be behind the situation. Be paranoid and protect all your data as fervently as a mother bear looks after her cubs.
7. Keep Your Security Software Updated
Your software needs to be updated on a regular basis, to keep up with the changes going on in hacker circles. For example, if the team behind your security software has identified a phishing site or attack file, they will add that information to their software, thus keeping you protected. Some forms of spyware actually record every activity that takes place on your machine, storing the data in a file that can later be uploaded to the hacker. This spyware could inadvertently be installed on your machine through an innocent looking application, such as when you download a video from a social media site link. Your spyware must outsmart all of these shenanigans, but it can only do so thoroughly if it's constantly updated.
8. Avoid Being Vulnerable Again
Internet identity protection services, like Silent Security 1, can prepare you for all kinds of online threats, from availing you to encryption software (which simply scrambles your data while it's being transmitted) to proxies and even alternate ways of identifying yourself in cyberspace. These companies range in size, complexity of services and cost; however, there's sure to be one suitable for your needs. Learn to recognize hacker vulnerabilities yourself and when something could be amiss on your machines.
Even if a presidential election doesn't potentially hang in the balance of your email security, you never want to be hacked. Hacking is becoming more and more sophisticated, common, and difficult to fend off; however, if you're vigilant, wise, and heavily invested in the processing of your own data, you should be able to protect yourself and your vital information.
