While it bears repeating that e-mail messages offering you a lot of money later in exchange for a little of yours today will lead to nothing good, all of us can do a lot more to protect our privacy and pocketbooks in the online world.
Nothing made the dangers more clear than the recent reports of a hacker gaining access to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s personal Yahoo Mail account.
According to reports, the hacker used Yahoo’s password-recovery process, through which Yahoo users can reset lost passwords, to reset the password of the GOP’s vice presidential candidate and gain access to her e-mail.
It didn’t help that Palin’s e-mail address — [email protected] — was way too obvious. It also didn’t help that the questions Yahoo! asks during password recovery, including “Where did you meet your spouse?” are easily answerable for even moderately well-known persons by just about anybody who knows their way around Wikipedia.
Here are a few things you can do to add a measure of safety and security to your personal e-mail accounts:
Avoid the obvious: Don’t pick an e-mail address that is at all obvious. That means not using your first and last name with a dot in the middle. I know my company e-mail address does that, but don’t miss the opportunity to avoid it with your personal account.
The only people who absolutely need to know who you are are those you tell. Don’t divulge anything more than you need to, and even if your e-mail address is slightly obnoxious — like [email protected], it is way more secure than using your own name.
Rethink your password: You might be surprised at this bit of advice: Write your e-mail password down on paper. Keep that paper hidden. A strong password, written down on a piece of paper to which only you know the location,…