When conducting business or personal interaction on the internet, email is traditionally the primary form of communication.  As a result, gaining access to an individual’s email can be quite lucrative and you can bet that there are plenty of people out there just waiting – and maybe even actively trying – to gain access to your account and in the process, access to your banking information, sensitive personal data and personal correspondence.  There are plenty of reasons for somebody to break into your email, but there are no excuses for letting it happen. These tips will give you a better idea of what actions to take in order to protect your identity and email account.

Flavor Up Your Password

One of the easiest ways that email accounts are compromised is by users using a password that is easy to guess or similar to their email address.  Programs designed to break into email accounts through rapid password guessing can also break many easy to guess passwords in just a few seconds.  Protect yourself against this scenario by making sure that your password contains numbers, letters and even variations on capitalization.  It is also a good rule of thumb to never use the same password for your email and any other account; if that account is compromised, they may try the same password on your email account as well.

Use PGP Encryption

Whenever working with other businesses or individuals on certain tasks, it is a good idea to encrypt your emails so nobody else can read them. PGP encryption allows you to generate a key that is used to identify the person to which the email is being sent. Only that person – with their key and their own password – can open the email from you. Likewise, you must have your key and password to open any email from them. This prevents any sensitive information from being in limbo or vulnerable while in transit and also while stored on your email account.

Send Anonymous Emails

If you are needing to communicate with someone whom you would like to hide your email address from, then Pingler’s Anonymous Email Tool can be a lifesaver. Simply input the email address of the person you are sending it to, an email address from which it appears to come from, a subject and the content of the message. You can send an email to anyone without using your name or email address. We can easily think of many good reasons for using this tool and we’re sure you can, too.

Employ Common Sense

Finally, there are plenty of old school tactics that you can use to minimize the threat of someone invading your email. Never open an attachment from a source you do not recognize, never give out your email password and avoid giving out your email address to everybody. Many people keep two accounts: one for personal use and one for use with accounts and junk mail. Remember: the fewer people and entities that are aware of your email address, the fewer people who will potentially have access to it.