Two close friends of mine had their email accounts hacked this week and they are not alone by any means.  Email hacking is a common occurrence and it can represent a serious security threat or a benign inconvenience, however, in either event, it is important to act promptly to remedy the situation. Sometimes your email is hacked and used as part of a botnet, which is a zombie network of computers used by scammers to send out spam.  Other times, however, when you are hacked, malware is installed on your computer without your becoming aware of it. One particularly troublesome type of malware is keystroke logging malware that can steal all of the information from your computer and make you a victim of identity theft.  Often you only become aware that you have been hacked when someone on your email list informs you that that you have received an email that appears to have been sent by you, but is strange and arouses suspicion.

TIPS

Here are some tips for what to do if you have been hacked.  For more detailed information, check out my book “50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age.”  You can order it by clicking on the link on the right hand side of this page.

1.  Change your password on your email account.  If you use the same password for other accounts, you should change those as well.

2.  Change your security question.  I often suggest that people use a nonsensical security question because the information could not be guessed or gathered online. For instance, you may want the question to be “What is your favorite color?” with the answer being “seven.”

3.  Report the hacking to your email provider.

4.  Contact people on your email list and let them know you have been hacked and not to click on links in emails that may appear to come from you.

5.  Scan your computer thoroughly with an up to date anti-virus and anti-malware program.  This is important because the hacker may have tried to install a keystroke logging malware program that can steal all of the information from your computer.

6.  Review the settings on your email, particularly make sure that your email is not being forwarded somewhere.

7.  Get a free copy of your credit report.  You can get your free credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com.  Some other sites promise free credit reports, but sign you up for other services that you probably don’t want or need.

8.  Consider putting a credit freeze on your credit report.  You can find information about credit freezes on my blog www.scamicide.com.