Security rules when using email?

Protecting yourself online is essential, as it does not take much to get a hold of if your personal details. One of those essential details is your email address. You would be surprised at the amount of destruction a scammer can do with just a personal email address. To protect yourself and your email, here are five security rules to protect yourself when using email.

1. Don't write your actual physical address in your email form. When you first sign up to use an email address, you will need to answer questions and fill out a form to create an account. When it comes time to fill out the form, part of the form will be dedicated to your physical address. Do not fill it in. Type in a fake address and keep on clicking. There is no need for your email account to know your physical address.

2. Download your entire contact list and keep it in a separate excel file. Sometimes, we cannot protect our email from hackers, and they will get to our email. If a scammer gets ahold of your email, you will never be able to get it back. Everything that you have in your email will be lost. To minimize a devastating loss of your personal email address, save all of your contacts up in a file on your computer. It is best to use an Excel file as it keeps all the contacts organized, but you can use any document.

3. Change your password often. Most people don't change their password for years after they first create their account. Changing your password is a hassle, but it is a good way to protect your email.

4. Use two-factor authentication whenever you need to sign it. Two-factor identification has become so popular lately. The reason for its popularity is that it is much more likely to prevent a bot from breaking into an email account. It is definitely a pain to sign in twice every time you want to use your email, but it is much less painful than calling your mother and grandmother and telling them that the email asking them for money that was sent from your email address is not actually you.

5. Always log out when you're done using your email. Yes, always walk out when you are finished checking your email. You should also do this when you are on your personal computer at home. Never leave yourself logged in to any account, not just your email. If malicious software is hiding on your computer, a scammer can program the virus to record everything you do.

6. Use a temporary email address whenever you can. Never give your email to just any website or app. You should only give your personal email to services that you absolutely trust. When you are unsure if you can trust an app, but you want to create an account anyway, then use a temporary email address service. These services provide fake emails so you can create an account and register with any service that requires an email and password.

By following these rules, you will keep yourself safe from hackers and bots, and you will not lose everything in your email account if you are hacked.