Your email is your primary identity in the online world, as it allows you to access all your online accounts, manage your financial transactions, maintain the security of your information and many other things. Your primary or private e-mail to any person or to any site or pages. The truth is that any cyber criminal can do a lot with your email if they get it, including harming you or whoever you know. In this article, we will mention to you some of the things that hackers can do to exploit your email and harm you, and how to avoid that in the end.


Hackers can try to access your other accounts

Once someone accesses your email, it becomes a lot easier to try to access any other online platforms and services you have signed up for.

And if you use the same email for all of your accounts, hackers can try to crack your passwords to other platforms, which is easier if you use the same password in more than one place.

Imagine that someone has access to all your social media, bank accounts, and other sensitive accounts that you don't want anyone to see. Once you get your email, it may already be half way through to everything else.


They can use two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication provides an extra, powerful layer of protection that helps prevent others from accessing your online accounts, but what happens when someone can take advantage of this feature?

Suppose an online platform sends the binary code to your email address to verify your identity. In this case, anyone with access to your email account can easily crack the two-factor authentication feature. Even if you use SMS or an authenticator app for your two-factor, password reset requests usually go to your email, and in some cases also include requests to disable two-factor authentication altogether.

And when a hacker gets into your email account, they won't have any problems accessing all your other online accounts.


Hackers can collect all your data

We all have a lot of private information in our email accounts, whether it's media, private emails, or financial data, there's a lot you might not want others to see, especially cybercriminals.

And if someone gains access to all this information, they will almost certainly find a way to use it for malicious purposes, this could be as simple as selling email addresses to third parties or it could be using this information to harm you in some way. Either way, it's best to avoid these issues from the start.


They can try to deceive your friends and family

A common method scammers use to obtain people's sensitive information is a technique called phishing. This means that the fraudster is impersonating another person to try to convince people to provide their personal data or even open their wallets.

And if someone can send emails from your account, your friends and family will have no reason to believe that you were not the one who sent the email. Regular spam filters will not apply if the message has already arrived from your email account. This means that they may be willing to disclose sensitive information that they could not otherwise give to a stranger.

The fraudster may try to extort money from those close to you by impersonating you and claiming that you are in trouble and need immediate help.

Not only does this put your friends and family at risk, but scammers may also get their email accounts as well, further spreading the problem.


These hackers can blackmail you

The ultimate goal of hackers, is to blackmail you as soon as it reaches your email account. And if they store all your private information somewhere, it's easy for them to threaten to reveal that information, or get a ransom, and that happened with someone I know well. And if you do not have any sensitive information, it is not without intimidation and threat.


Your accounts may be locked

Whether it's just your email account or all your other online accounts, if a cyber criminal gets hold of your password and email, you could lose access to your entire digital life in no time.

And if the scammers manage to reset your passwords on all the platforms available to them, you will immediately lose access to everything. We are not only talking about social media platforms but also things like bank accounts etc and of course your private email address.

Not only will you lose access to your online accounts, they will be able to impersonate you.

Furthermore, if they can use this to access your Apple ID, they can also remotely wipe all your devices, and erase your iCloud backups as well. This may sound far-fetched, but it's been done before. Your digital presence can be completely erased.


Your reputation may be destroyed

This scammer may be someone who holds grudges against you, once he gets your email, he will try to find more than one way to harm you and your reputation, such as sending inappropriate emails to your co-workers or may reveal private information to your friends and family, there are many ways that He uses it to destroy your reputation, your relationships, and even your work life.


How do you avoid all these problems?

There are actually many ways to avoid being hacked or scammed without much hassle or effort, but here are some general recommendations:

◉ Stop giving out your email address to anyone you don't know or to any site you don't trust. Be it online or in real life. You can use different email addresses for different platforms, this way, your private email address will be safe, and you can tell people your public email address without worrying too much.

◉ Strengthen your passwords. Use different passwords for different online platforms, and try to make them as complex as possible. Try using uppercase letters, lowercase numbers, and symbols in your passwords. Know that longer passwords can be difficult to remember, but there are some great password managers that will keep all your passwords safe in one place, and some help you with spam email addresses too.

◉ If you want to be more secure, use two-factor authentication. It would be better if you set it up to receive your code on your personal phone, so no one but you will be able to access it, but avoid using SMS if you can, Because that is vulnerable to a SIM swap attack.

◉ Use an authenticator app that generates codes on your device, or better yet, use a physical security key for your sensitive accounts.

◉ Last but not least, avoid suspicious websites. Sometimes, a single click is all it takes for someone to get your email and password on one of these sites.

Although there is no perfect way to completely protect yourself from cybercriminals, the above steps will help you a lot. They may always find new ways to try to attack people, but you shouldn't make it easy for them.

Do you know a tip to protect ourselves from hackers? Tell us in the comments.

Source:

idropnews

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