{"id":51896,"date":"2015-10-05T22:15:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T22:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=51896"},"modified":"2015-10-05T22:15:30","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T22:15:30","slug":"8-steps-for-coping-with-email-hacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/8-steps-for-coping-with-email-hacks\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Steps for Coping with Email Hacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

8 steps for coping and recovering from an email hack.–PC Pitstop.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

8 Steps for Coping with Email Hacks<\/h4>\n

by Suzanne Kantra for Techlicious<\/p>\n

Recently, I got an email from a friend urging me to check out an amazing page. Between the grammatical errors and a link pointing to a server somewhere in Russia, it was obvious that my friend\u2019s email account had been hacked. <\/p>\n

When I checked in with her another way, she already knew about the problem\u2014the hacker’s message had gone out to her entire address book\u2014and she was quite concerned. So I walked her through the steps for getting everything back in order.<\/p>\n

Step #1: Change your password<\/strong>
\nThe very first thing you should do is keep the hacker from getting back into your email account. Change your password to a strong password that is not related to your prior password; if your last password was billyjoe1, don’t pick billyjoe2\u2014and if your name is actually BillyJoe, you shouldn’t have been using your name as your password in the first place.<\/p>\n

Try using a meaningful sentence as the basis of your new password. For example, \u201cI go to the gym in the morning\u201d turns into \u201cIg2tGYMitm\u201d using the first letter of each word in the sentence, mixing uppercase and lowercase letters and replacing the word \u201cto\u201d with \u201c2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step #2: Reclaim your account<\/strong>
\nIf you\u2019re lucky, the hacker only logged into your account to send a mass email to all of your contacts.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not so lucky, the hacker changed your password too, locking you out of your account. If that\u2019s the case, you\u2019ll need to reclaim your account, usually a matter of using the \u201cforgot your password\u201d link and answering your security questions or using your backup email address.<\/p>\n

Check out the specific recommendations for reclaiming possession of your account for Gmail, Outlook.com and Hotmail, Yahoo! and AOL.<\/p>\n

Step #3: Enable two-factor authentication<\/strong>
\nSet your email account to require a second form of authentication in addition to your password whenever you log into your email account from a new device. When you log in, you’ll also need to enter a special one-time use code the site will text to your phone or generated via an app.<\/p>\n

Check out two-step authentication setup instructions for Gmail, Microsoft\u2019s Outlook.com and Hotmail and Yahoo!. AOL doesn\u2019t support two-factor authentication yet.<\/p>\n

Steps Continued Here<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 steps for coping and recovering from an email hack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":33428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[671],"tags":[445],"class_list":["post-51896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-techlicious","tag-email-security"],"yoast_head":"\n8 Steps for Coping with Email Hacks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"8 Steps for Coping with Email Hacks - 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