Email hacking is a very common practice. I was surprised by how many sites offer to teach you how to hack into someone’s email. This is a terrible practice and not only is it an invasion of privacy, but it can also be used for a variety of illegal practices.

In Today’s News: “Lawyer’s Appeal Decision In Palin Email Hack” As reported on NewsChannel5.com, a young man has been found guilty of hacking into Sarah Palin’s email account during the presidential campaign. His sentence of him can be 21 months in jail! This is certainly no laughing matter. For those of you who have had their email hacked… there’s nothing funny about it. What can you do to prevent your email from being hacked?

1. Never provide personal or account information in an email.

Most email accounts are hacked through ‘phishing’. Phishing is when you receive an email from what appears to be a legitimate site asking you to click links or enter personal/private information. NEVER do this, because if you do, you have just given the hacker the personal information they need to access your accounts, such as bank or credit card details.

These hackers can be very clever and work hard to make the “phishing site” look like a legitimate website. If you receive an email from your bank asking you to click a link within the email…don’t. If it asks you for account information… don’t do it. If you know the address of your bank’s website, type it into your browser. Then login and you will see if there is any message for you. Any legitimate bank will never ask you for your personal account details in an email. Alternatively, you can call your bank, using the phone number on your bank statements or in the phone book. Never use the one in the email.

2. Use a web browser that has ‘phishing filters’. A phishing filter is a software program that works to identify fraudulent websites that are trying to represent legitimate sites. Firefox and Windows 7 are just two of the browsers that have built-in phishing filters.

3. Check the filters in your email account. If, for example, you use Gmail, you can sign in and go to your settings and then check your filters. See if it recognizes them as the ones you set up. If not, get rid of it.

4. Never click links within an email unless you know the page it’s taking you to. I found a very useful tool called ‘Cooliris’ and it is a plugin that allows you to preview a page without clicking the link. Not only does it prevent you from clicking a link you don’t want to go to, but it also saves time by not having to open another web page or tab to see the link’s landing page.

Here is a link to download Cooliris http://www.coolpreviews.com/firefox/options-firefox.php.

Remember, hackers usually access our emails when we open the door for them. Be vigilant and careful when clicking on links within emails when you are certain of them in any way.

Here’s how you can help prevent email hacking.