The news on the alleged hacking of Governor Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! account have proven that everybody can be a victim of unauthorized accessing of email accounts. Even former KYW-TV news anchor Alycia Lane’s email account was illegally accessed by her co-anchor Larry Mendte — a controversial case that led to Mendte’s three-year probation. Despite the abundance of anti-hacking and anti-snooping software available on the Internet, your email accounts are still vulnerable to being accessed by unauthorized users. The good news, however, is that you can still do something to keep your private messages from being read by nosy snoopers. Here are some tips on how you can protect your email accounts from the prying eyes of snoopers.
* Choose impossible-to-guess passwords
Your passwords are the pawns in your email accounts — they are your first line of defense against snoopers and hackers. To protect your private messages from being tomorrow’s subject of gossip, choose passwords that are not only secure but also unpredictable. Refrain from using passwords that correspond to your name, your crush, your birthday, your pet, your hometown, your favorite color, your favorite movie, or your favorite Teletubby. Try to come up with impossible-to-guess passwords that are composed of both letters and numbers. That way, the gossip-hungry snooper will find it more difficult to access your email.
* Disable automatic log in functions
Enabling the automatic log in functions on your computer saves you from the tedious routine of entering your username and password before you can actually access your email account. You just have to turn on your computer, log on to the Internet, and – voila! – your inbox is now on the screen. The problem with enabling the automatic log in functions in your computer though is that it also provides unauthorized users with a hassle-free access to your email account. So before somebody snoops into your emails and reads your private messages, disable the automatic log in functions on your computer and uncheck that “Remember Password” option on your email provider log in/sign up page.