If your email account is hacked, please donโt panic ! You can always take a couple of steps to mitigate the problems.
1. Run anti-malware programs โ This should be the very first step. Scan your computer with some good anti-malware programs and make sure all malware are removed properly from the system, in case there were any. This is important because if there are malware present in the system, then even if the email password and account settings are changed, hackers may be able to gain the access to the account back.
2. Change password โ The very next step should be to change the password of the email account. Please note that the length of a password should be at least 12 and it should contain a good combination of small letters, capital letters, numbers and special characters. And, one should never reuse passwords to other accounts.
If an attacker manages to get password of an account, probably the very next thing he would do is to try the same password to other accounts of the user. If you feel remembering strong and different passwords to multiple accounts is difficult, please use a good password manager. You can find more information on some good password managers available on the market here : https://www.thesecuritybuddy.com/best-password-manager/
3. Check your account settings โ Now, you should login to the account and check carefully whether there is any change in the account settings. Many a times attackers change account settings of a hacked account, for example to forward sensitive emails to the attacker.
4. Notify all your contacts โ This step is important. Many a times attackers exploit a hacked account to send emails to the contacts of the hacked account for the purpose of phishing or spreading malware. A user is much likely to open an email and click on the link or open an attachment if the email comes from a known person. Please request your contacts not to click on any link or open attachment of any suspicious looking email sent from your email address.
5. Enable 2 Factor Authentication โ Nowadays most of the email service providers provide the option of enabling 2 FA. This can improve the security of an account up to a great extent. If your account has 2 FA enabled, then an attacker wonโt be able to get access of your account, even if the attacker has your email address and password.
6. Change your security question if any โ If you have any security question associated with the account, please change that. I would also suggest, if you use the same security question to other accounts, please change there too.
7. Repeat the process for all other accounts where you use the same email address or password โ This may look redundant, but it is important. Suppose you use the same email address for a different account and the password used was not strong enough for the attackers, or suppose you used the same password to another account and the username or email address used was easy enough for attackers to guess. Nowadays we reveal much more information on social networking sites than we think we do.
8. Report the hack โ It is better to report your email provider about the hacking. The email provider may even help you with the origin or the nature of the attack.
9. Contact credit agencies โ Attackers often exploit the hacked information to commit even more cyber crime. They may also use this information for phishing scams and make purchases on your credit card. So, it is better to ask credit reporting agencies to monitor your accounts for some months when you were hacked.
10. Look for suspicious emails in the hacked account – If your email service provider is unable to detect spams and phishing emails in the hacked account after the attack, you can think of closing the account and make necessary changes to other accounts where you use the same email address.
Hope this helps.
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