Email hacking has become a common nuisance these days. You often hear about it, but recently when my client became a victim of it and was perplexed, I realized how important it is for everyone to know what they must do in such a situation.

So, here I am with a list of to-dos in case your email is ever hacked.

1. Change your password

It goes without saying, changing your password immediately would prevent the hacker from gaining access to your account again.

2. Reclaim your account

Most hackers don’t just access your email, but also change your password. Use the ‘forgot your password’ link to reset it.

3. Enable two-factor authentication

Almost all email service providers, except AOL, offer the option of two-factor authentication. It ensures that no one can access your email with just the password.

4. Check your email settings

Check if the hacker has changed your mail forwarding settings and added one of his own emails to keep a watch on your activity. Also, check the autoresponder and signature settings and remove any spam content if added.

5. Scan your computer for malware

Use an anti-malware software to prevent further attempts of hacking. If you already had one installed when the system was hacked, then use a new software as clearly that one didn’t work.

6. Check if anything else was compromised

A lot of us use our inbox to store personal information like bank details, passwords and other sensitive information. If that’s the case with you too, then reset those immediately.

7. Inform everyone

Hackers aim to reach more potential victims with every account they hack, it is important that you reach out to all your contacts and let them know that your account was hacked. Advise them not to open emails sent from the hacked account.

8. Prevent it from happening again

Most of us choose easy to remember passwords, and hackers are savvy enough to break them. This time go for a much more complex password so that they aren’t able to break into your account with just an educated guess.