Why is personal email security important? Well, for starters, email is one of the most popular ways of initiating cyber attacks. Additionally, millions of emails are sent daily at both organisational and personal levels containing sensitive data that attackers can use against you.

Using encryption services, VPNs, creating custom spam filters are some of the most effective ways to improve personal email security. Keeping your devices secure is another essential aspect of email security. Be cautious about your email address exposure. Lastly, take email security seriously, stay informed and ahead of attackers.

This article will walk you through 6 effective, yet easy-to-apply tips to make your personal email security unbreachable and help you shield your valuable information. Let’s get into it.

1. Use A VPN

One of the most effective methods to keep your communication private and confidential from the outside world is to use a VPN or virtual private (proxy) network. VPNs are privacy tools that allow you to browse the internet, with increased safety and anonymity. These tools provide end-to-end data encryption and route it through an intermediary server located somewhere else in the world. It keeps your online activities safe from any onlookers on the internet , including your internet service provider, advertisers, and malicious entities on the web. It significantly decreases cyber attacks that require access to your IP address and gives you advanced protection in keeping any personal data and information secure.

2. Find Out Whether Your Email Address Exists on The Internet

Your email address is a powerful piece of information that should remain private as it can be exploited to gain access to your accounts. For example, if an attacker already knows your email address, they can quickly discover the account login combination using dictionary and Brute Force attacks. Also, they can send you spam emails with malware attached. To prevent these attacks, you need to know if your email address is already exposed on the internet.

To check your current status, go to Sniff Email — an online platform dedicated to finding out if your email address exists on the internet. Enter your email address in the search field and click fetch to find out if your email address exists on the web within a few seconds. Based on the results, you can take appropriate action to remove it.

3. Use Antivirus Software on Your Devices

If you are using your email account on a device with malware, your personal email security is already compromised. This is why we recommend using a robust, up-to-date antivirus on all your devices. Besides removing and blocking threats from your devices, antivirus works as a backup system to catch cleverly designed email threats that your VPN, spam filter, and other email security layer fails to detect.

4. Create Custom Filters for Your Messages

Configuring your email application with intelligent custom filters should prevent most malicious emails from reaching your inbox. Cyber criminals are getting smarter every day — creating hard to catch email spam and new addresses to spread malware. Stay up to date on commonly used keywords and add them to your spam filter. Also, you should go through your spam box once a day to identify the false positives.

5. Use An Encryption Service

Most popular email service providers offer standard TLS encryption on their emails as long as the other email address provider supports it. However, if you want to improve your personal email security, end-to-end encryption is an enhanced protocol as it only requires configuration from one party. It is also more convenient for everyday messaging. Furthermore, an encryption service makes it impossible for hackers to access the information even if they intercept the communication channel.

6. Stay Ahead of Cyber Attackers

Staying one step ahead of hackers and spammers and staying informed about email security is the final and most crucial step of improving personal email security. It includes everything from using strong and unique passwords, logging out of your email account from non-personal devices, keeping your email address private, and being careful about social engineering tricks. A few other things to keep in mind are never to interact with spam emails, never share personal information with organisations via email without confirming their legitimacy, always ensuring email addresses from your employers, etc. If you encounter a fishy or spammy message, don’t interact with it and report it as spam. Hackers are always trying to improve their techniques. Therefore, stay in touch with cyber security forums on the latest information and implement them to stay safe. Review your email security regularly and look out for any weak links to avoid a security breach.

Email security has a far-reaching impact on your overall online existence. With increasing online transactions and information exchanges, compromised personal email security can disrupt personal and professional life. Therefore, you should take proper security measures to protect yourself on the web.