On Monday, I was contacted by one of our church members whose gmail account had been hacked into. Whoever had hacked into her account had changed the password, set up two-step security and changed the backup email address as well as the backup phone number. Then, that hacker had sent an email to all her contacts asking for money. The sister was in distress and didn’t know what to do.
She’d already followed the steps suggested by Google to try to recover her account. There wasn’t much I could do. I helped her set up a new email and explained that it was unlikely that she would recover her old mail box and contacts. But who knows? Google might do something. In the meantime, it was urgent to change all her passwords on the sites where she used the same one. I was hoping the hacker hadn’t already done that for her. As I left, she noticed that it was like having someone breaking into your home. The hacker had access to all her emails and part of her personal life. It was distressing, hurtful.
We often dismiss the possibility of our accounts being hacked into until it happens to us or someone we know. What would you do if your email account got hacked into? You probably store many passwords in your archive. A lot of personal information is in it. The hacker could probably make a lot of damage (and possibly profit), before you even notice it.
On my part, I am reviewing my online security steps. I am setting up two-step identification wherever I can as soon as possible. It’s a pain, but I am sure it is worth it. I will also review the sites where I’ve used the same password and change these. The following article should get you started: How secure are you online: the checklist — Lifehacker. have you thought of the possibility of your email account being hacked into? Think about it. I am sure you are keeping passwords, confidential prayer letters, details from christian friends working in closed countries…. What would happen if someone hacked into your email account?