This time it almost succeeded because it visited during one of my most toxic day/night. I just came home from work and doing my usual “email check time” which is after dinner and before bed time. It’s one of those long tiring day that I gifted myself with a good dinner and the thought of resting my tired back on the soft bed is oh so inviting!
I came across this email. I usually think twice before clicking this kind. But maybe out of my tiredness and I think you would agree with me that this one looks legit right?
So I clicked on it and obediently followed the instruction. But in just a matter of seconds a strong sound of “Teng!” came into my mind and then a strong thud in my chest. My instinct told me something is not right. I “mouse over” the "From" (sender) and found that the address doesn’t match the sender (see red-encircled email address in the image). Boom! I am being hacked! And the race begun!
Screen shot of the “yahoo email” sent to my main email address.
Note that the red-encircled yahoo address does not match the email sender (From).
Note that the red-encircled yahoo address does not match the email sender (From).
First thing I did was to CHANGE the password as QUICKLY as I can before the hacker access anything on my email address. And I spent the whole evening doing a lot of clicking. I apologize if I can not share here what were the exact preventive actions that I did because “Mr. Hacker” might just be around and reading this and he might know my secret tactics. But you can message me privately if you’re interested to know.
For my fellow bloggers who, like me has several number of email address and web accounts that need to be protected. The best thing that I can suggest is that once you know/feel that you are being hacked, change the passwords of all your accounts immediately. And then, temporarily remove the connections between your email addresses and web accounts. Even if it means that you need to spend overnight working on it like what happened to me. Better be safe than sorry.
There are lots of anti-hacking tips that you can find online, but the most effective one is to change your "PASSWORD”. Here are some of my personal tips.
- Change your passwords frequently.
- Choose a very unique pass word preferably something that has no relation to your personal information (birthday, etc). Use a combination of alphanumeric, symbols, upper and lower case.
- Keep the password written somewhere else, not in your PC and most of all not in any of your web files.
- Use different email address for different purposes.
- Keep one or two email addresses very private that you should use for very important transactions only (eg. any transactions involving money).
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