Email is something that is part of our daily lives. We use it to stay in contact with other people and companies, to register on Internet platforms, share documents… This makes it essential to always maintain good security. If you make mistakes, all your data could be exposed. Therefore, in this article we are going to talk to you about a common fault that you may be committing in your e-mail.
Have you had the same email for many years? It is normal and there is nothing wrong with it. However, it is very negative if you have not taken the necessary measures to preserve security during this time. If you have made a major mistake, which we are going to talk about, you could make things easier for attackers.
Long time with the same password
The mistake is to have the same password in email for a long time. Sometimes even years. That is a problem, since there may have been vulnerabilities, you may have used that password on other platforms or you may have logged in on infected devices.
Furthermore, something that aggravates the situation is when you use a key that is very weak. For example, you may have had an email address for many years and have a password in which you put your name and date of birth, your phone number or any similar information that could easily be discovered.
And yes, this is another problem frequent than it may seem. We all know that using complex passwords is essential to prevent intruders. Now, when was the last time you changed your passwords? It can be very time consuming, whether in the mail or any other service, and that is a problem.
This leads us to recommend that you change the email password and, also, that you set one that is really secure. This is what will allow you to avoid account intruders, protect your personal data or also prevent it from reaching third parties through your address.
How to have good passwords
The first thing is that that password must be unique. You should not use a password that you are using on social networks, Internet forums or any other platform. If there is a vulnerability, what is known as a domino effect could occur. This means that they could test to see if it matches the one in the email.
It is also essential that it be complex. It is good that it has letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers and other special symbols. That will make that key more robust and it will be much more difficult for them to steal it. If you set a password that only has letters or only numbers, for example, it is more likely that they can break it with a brute force attack.
The length It’s also going to be important. Each additional symbol, number or letter will make security improve exponentially. Therefore, the longer the length, the better. If you can, a 12-character password is better than a 10-character password. Keep this in mind when you are going to create a password for your email or any platform.
In short, as you can see, it is a mistake to have email accounts unprotected. You should never use the same password for too long, especially if it is a very weak key. You can always check if a password has been leaked.
