Scammers may hack a user’s email account to steal personal data and have access to your contact list while also accessing other accounts linked to the primary email account.
Everything we access online is likely to be connected and your email address is often used to login to other accounts like online banking or social media.
In addition, using a hacked email account, attackers can then send spam messages to other people like your friends, family, co-workers, clients and suppliers who will automatically think the email is legitimate since they know the sender.
Finding out if you have been hacked
There are certain indicators you might look out for if you suspect you have been hacked.
- Your email sent messages folder has emails you didn’t send.
- Your email has automated forwarding set up to email addresses you did not configure.
- People in your contact list (friends, family, clients, etc) are telling you about emails you didn’t send.
- You are logged out of your social media accounts connected to your email.
- Some of your social media pages have posts you didn’t make.
It is important that you address email hacking fast to avoid further damage and losses. Just imagine someone malicious hacking your business email account and sending fake messages to your partners or to your employees, some of which may include payments to suppliers with altered bank details. This situation can severely damage your business and reputation.
How was your email hacked
After finding out that there are chances that your email could have been hacked, you are asking yourself, how was it done? There might be some vulnerabilities in your computer or phone that might have been exploited. Some of these vulnerabilities include:
- Weak passwords
- Your antivirus or security software was not up to date.
- You downloaded a song, document or attachment that was loaded with a malicious file or script.
- You clicked a link from your email or in a social media site that might have been malicious.
What to do after you find out your email has been hacked
You are sure or suspect your account has been breached. Here are a few steps to remedy the situation.
1. Change your passwords
If you have been kicked out of your account by the hacker, you should contact your email provider and ask for a password reset. You will be asked to verify important details so that they can verify that you’re indeed the legitimate owner. You should also change your password after you are sure that your computer is free of malware.
When resetting your passwords, you should ensure that you set a strong new password to deter hackers. You should not use passwords which are tied to your birthday, your name or important personal details. This is because hackers will always try guessing such passwords first before jumping to other password brute forcing techniques.
Strong passwords should contain a mix of upper case and lower case letters and should have more than six characters, but 15 characters is the recommended length. You can rely on a secure password manager to store all your passwords safely and give recommendations of strong passwords.
Lastly, adding another layer such as 2 factor authentication will decrease the chances of your email being hacked again.
2. Run your Anti virus Software
If your email has been hacked, you should run an end-to-end deep antivirus scan. A deep scan eliminates malware like keyloggers and also identifies the harmful applications. A hacker is always looking for something resourceful. There could be important financial details in your email and this is what the hacker wants.
Hackers also target business email accounts since this is where important transactions like money transfer acknowledgment take place. When the malicious individual gets hold of your email details, they might even start sending money transactions to themselves and approve it through the hacked email account. If not noticed early, such illegal transactions can lead to major losses in small businesses.
3 . Report the hack
If you suspect or are sure that your email has been hacked even if you still have access, ensure you always report it to your email provider. This is important since you will know the effects of the hack and how large it is, and what systems have been affected.
At times, there might be a hacker in your email account but they have hidden their traces well. Such behaviour may cause them to be around for longer leading to even more losses.
Your email provider will also provide the details of the hack through monitoring the behaviour of the hacker. This will make you protect yourself and your business better since you know what door the hacker used.
4. Inform your contacts that you have been hacked
Your email is linked to a lot of sites including social media accounts. Your email also has details of your contacts and their emails too. Hackers hack legitimate emails and send contacts phishing links. The majority of these harmful links are likely to succeed since your contacts trust you. Your friends and family are mostly likely to click links from you no matter how weird they look.
Hackers can also post misleading links on your social media to hack your followers too. This is why you have to take initiative and inform your contacts that you were hacked.
5. Change your security Questions and adopting multi-factor authentication
A hacker can hack your email account using your security question too. This is because users set questions that can be easily guessed according to their geographical region and common practices. “What is your favorite food?” You will find that some food types are common in different regions and the hacker uses this to leverage on the situation. Don’t set too obvious answers and also ensure you can memorize them.
In addition, ensure you use multi-factor authentication. Even if a hacker guesses your security answer, they are blocked by another secondary ‘gate’.
6. Train yourself on basic cyber security measures
Scammers are on the rise and they will use all ways to hack you. You should be on the look out for phishing links.
Many of the hacks can be avoided or detected early if users can be more vigilant and aware of cyber security. Hackers take advantage of the fact that everyone is in a hurry , meaning less concerned about little alterations.
You should look at the sender email address carefully. Some hackers make little alterations to impersonate someone’s email address. If you fall for such traps, you might be in trouble. Such emails could be something like recruiters@cyber.com altered to recruiterss@cyber.com.
You should also learn how legitimate companies communicate and channels they use. No legitimate company has emails full of spelling mistakes. No company will ask you to ‘authenticate’ your credit card details online.
It is important that everyone and all small businesses take cyber security measures to protect their email accounts. Hacks are such undesirable situations. You don’t want to start explaining to your clients how your business was hacked through an email, a situation which could be entirely avoided. Take cyber security seriously and ensure your business is adequately protected.
How cyber-secure is your business? Find out with our free cybersecurity health check.
It’s a 30 minute Zoom call that walks through a checklist to assess your current cybersecurity levels and provide a short report with some advice and recommendations.
