Digital Defense: KFBK Scam Report--Email Hacking; Strong Passwords

Email hacking is rampant partly because it is so lucrative and people often do not realize their email is connected to so many personal accounts and personal information.

One of the most important passwords you create may just be your email password. 

Many of us have something sitting in our email right now that would have monetary value for an email hacker. 

"A link or information to a credit card, a mutual fund, a loan you received, something that someone could gain access through and monetize by having that information," explained Doug Fodeman with thedailyscam.com.

He also says there are those "reset your password" links sitting in your email right now and even in your deleted email.  

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He says protect your email at all costs. Passwords should be random and should not contain any words. 

"They shouldn't have any personal information. Shouldn't have the birth dates of your kids or your dogs name," he advised. 

Fodeman says start with a base password. It should not have any words from a dictionary of any language. That means words forwards and backwards and in association with numbers.  

"Think of a favorite song of yours. Create a password by taking the first letter of each of the first five words in the song. You've got five letters and then build on that. Think of the first time you went to a dance with your spouse. Use that year," outlined Fodeman. 

Use that as your base, put a symbol like an equal sign and then a few letters from the name of the site your creating the password for like "Apl" for your Apple account or "Gl" for your Gmail account.

Fodeman says passwords need to be at  least 10 characters long.


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