5 Ways to Avoid Your Email Being "Hacked"

Twitter, media darling that it is right now, is logging a bit of bad press for having company documents stolen.

The short version is a hacker got into an employee's web email account, and from there was able to access information stored in Twitter's Google Apps account.

Depending on where you read the story, the spin is:

Twitter has serious security issues (partially true)

Cloud computing is unsafe (mostly false)

Someone needs a better password (clearly true)

The real lesson to be learned here is be extremely cautious with your email. Think about it. Virtually everything online is linked to your email account.

Are you equally vulnerable?

All of us keep both personal and company information online, ranging from mundane Facebook postings to critical financial access, such as bank or Paypal logins. Many of these sites are very secure in and of themselves, but access to an email account can bring all the dominoes tumbling down.

Is login info to other sites sitting in an email you sent or received? Are the passwords to more secure sites the same as your email account? Could a hacker reset the passwords to other sites with access to your email?

A compromised email account can be the backdoor to information a hacker couldn't get at any other way.

How not to fall into the Twitter trap (or is that twap?)

1. Put a strong password on your email and webmail accounts.
2. Be cautious in what you link to a webmail account with a major provider (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.). These are not inherently unsafe, but they are big targets.
3. Never email login credentials to co-workers or vendors. You don't want that info residing in your (or their) email account.
4. Have unique passwords for secure sites. Never reuse your email password.
5. Change your passwords regularly. I know remembering all of them is a major headache, but strong passwords written on a piece of paper in a locked desk drawer are more secure than the same password on every site.