Have you secured your email account?

Why are email accounts so important?

Your emails contain a lot of information about you, so it’s crucial you make your email password strong. If criminals get into your email account, they could access personal information that could be used to scam you or others. To make it harder for them, always use an email password that you haven’t used elsewhere.

Your email inbox can also act as a ‘gateway’ to your other accounts. Once they can access it, a criminal could use the ‘forgot password’ option to request emails enabling them to get into other accounts, such as your social media.

How to secure your email account

Your email password

Using a combination of 3 random words creates passwords that are long enough and strong enough. Avoid words that can be guessed, like your pet’s name or birth month. Adding numbers and symbols is a good way to make your password even harder to guess.

Turn on 2-Step Verification (2SV) for your email

2-Step Verification (2SV) gives you twice the protection so even if cyber criminals have your password, they can't access your email.

2SV works by asking for more information to prove your identity. For example, getting a code sent to your phone when you sign in using a new device or change settings such as your password.

You won't be asked for this every time you check your email.

Hot to turn on 2-Step Verification (2SV)

· Turn on 2SV for Outlook

· Turn on 2SV for Gmail

· Turn on 2SV for iCloud

If you are using an email service that does not offer 2SV, please consider switching to an email provider that does.

How to check if one of your online accounts may have been compromised

Services such as www.haveibeenpwned.com can tell you if your personal information or any of your account passwords have been made public in a major data breach.

If you have been affected by a data breach, you can find some useful information here from the National Cyber Security Centre on how to how to protect yourself from the impact of data breaches.

For more advice on how to stay secure online, please visit www.cyberaware.gov.uk