Steve Smith talks about how someone is probably reading your emails, right now, and explains how you can reduce the risk of this, identity fraud, and other risks at the same time.
Episode #6-34 released on May 8, 2016
I hope this doesn't come to you as a surprise, if your email address and password is old, it is probably compromised. Web-sites around the world are always being the victim of being hacked, and databases are being compromised all the time. This is why programmers like myself put so many hours into developing stronger encryption methods to protect users from such attacks. But, this is easier for small sites than bigger sites. Changing your password more often, and maintaining different passwords for all sites has a very positive effect that I have talked about before on this show.
Let\'s come back to an idea here, something you need to remember, malicious hackers. You have a few types of hackers, some like myself categorize ourselves as white hats, many are gray hats, but the worst are the black hats, or what have been determined to be called, Malicious hackers. These are the most destructive of an otherwise important group of people. Age is not an issue here. The draw, is money. And, anything that can generate sustainable revenue is what they are after. This is why viruses, hacking, and online black markets are a thing, and money is only making this war accelerate.
You are worth money, you probably make money with a job, anything a hacker can do will be with a singular end desire, for you to give up this money to any kind of a series of attacks against you. But, why are email addresses valuable at all? Two-factor authentication is one of the many reasons why your email address and password is valuable. Plus, any account connected to that email address raises its value. It, also, facilitates identity theft, and other forms of fraud when your account is compromised.
This being said, it is up to you to secure your accounts by changing your passwords, often. That act alone will lock out hackers, governments that compromise your account, and other people who snoop on your business. Once that is done, avoid at all costs accessing your email over public and unsecured WIFI hotspots, as well as using the same password anywhere else.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions