Using eMail is both productive and fun but it could be a source of agony if your account is hacked and hijacked as I’ve experienced. There are so many free email platforms available and the paid versions cost only a little. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Fastmail are some of the more popular ones. Creating a mail account for yourself is so easy if you can follow simple instructions.
Tips on Maintaining and Creating an Account
1. User Name
Don’t use your real name. If you have a business, it’s best to use its name for publicity. For personal accounts, use an alias or initials with numbers. Using your real name as user name will expose you more to hackers.
2. Passwords
I already lost one mail account to hijacking and I think it was because of a weak password and an unsafe popular mail server -a disgusting experience.
The primary rule for safe passwords is to use an eight characters combination of numbers and letters -the letters a mix of caps and lower cases. And if you really need to be safe, you should change passwords every 3 to 6 months. If you see signs of hacking or of your account being infected, the first thing you do is change password. That way, you will also know for sure if your account is safe or not. If you can’t change your password anymore, then sorry but your account was already hijacked.
3. Avoid Third Parties with your Account
I experienced allowing a safe third party access to my account. At first, it made my mailing easier because the third party blocks spams and unwanted mails. But after a few months, it ended in frustration. I began receiving annoying and unwanted messages and was forced to stop the service. The account eventually became useless because I gradually stopped receiving messages and I’m not sure if the third party was involved.
4. Use an eMail Address Encoding App
If you want safety when you have to share your mail address with an untrusted site or person, the free service named will hide your email address into a safe and short URL.
Now I recommended this because I don’t think this is a third party app since you don’t have to reveal all your mail contacts. But if you think it is, then you don’t have to use it.
Here’s the main tip: use one mail server for your important mails and another for those not-so-important. You can be sure that we all will get at least one spam mail and if you use only one mail server, your whole account that includes your important mails will be exposed to hacking and malware infection.
If you value your personal mails more than your important business mails, you should go one step further and isolate your personal mails on a different mail server.
If you think I missed on anything, please do me a favor and inform me.
achsan uddin