Just today I heard about yet another business colleague who had her gmail account hacked. And in the process the thieves obtained information about her major business site (the one that makes her a living) and stole it from her.
This -- or something similar could happen to you.
Your first line of defense is ALWAYS your password. I know it's a pain to create hard to crack passwords and to change them on a regular basis, but there are bad guys out there whose only purpose in life is to do us harm.
To make it easier to manage, use a password tool like Roboform. I've been using it for a few years and it has been a life saver. You can get started with it for free (and the paid version is only $10). Well worth saving your business don't you think?
Also, if you are using gmail as a mail provider, there are two things you need to do right now to minimize your risk.
- Set a secondary access email address in case you are ever locked out of your account.
- Set up two step verification.
To do both of these, you'll need to go into your account settings. Click on the gear in the upper right hand corner of the page (while you are logged into gmail) and select mail settings. Once in mail settings, select other google account settings. That will take you to an account overview.
On the account overview page you will have an option to set up your alternate email address and two step verification. Setting up these two items will provide you with an additional layer of protection should anyone try to hack your account.
Do it now while you are thinking about it. It will only take a few minutes.
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