The amount of data which is stored by businesses as well as individuals online has increased significantly in the past few years. This has also been accompanied by an equally large amount of increase in the number of hacking attempts online. Due to this very reason, it is important to look into the security of email accounts as well.
Personal email accounts
Most of the people link their personal email accounts with their bank accounts as well as various government-related schemes as well. Thus, if there is any hacking attempt on their personal email account, there is always a risk of theft or personal data. In such a case, they can suffer from identity fraud as well. They can lose a significant amount of money as most of the bank accounts are linked to their email. As the amount of information which is present in the email account increases, the amount of security which is needed in order to protect them would also increase. Also, it is the responsibility of the individual himself/herself to ensure that they are not disclosing the email ID publicly or to any interested source.
Professional email accounts
Professional email accounts are at a higher risk when it comes to hacking. This is due to the fact that most of the hackers are already aware that professional email accounts would have a significant amount of business information. That is why many hackers actually concentrate on taking the professional business accounts. Many times, the hacking attacks are conducted by a computeras well. That is why companies need to be always on their toes in order to close the low points and conduct penetration testing on a regular basis to make sure that the email accounts on their domains are completely safe and secure.
In case, any of the email accounts are hacked, the individual, as well as the company, is at a greater risk as they would lose private and confidential data. Moreover, the data which is retrieved through a hacked email account can be used to blackmail the individual or a company. This opens up the company to not only great personal damage but also to liabilities as well if client or 3rd party information is leaked from the hacked email account.
So, keeping the threats in mind, it is important to focus more on the security of the email accounts as well as the messaging services which we use.