There are many ways hackers can benefit by accessing people’s email accounts. It can be quite disturbing to have your personal information and private conversations accessed by someone. Your professional and personal information can be revealed. You could also lose valuable messages that hold crucial information.

Today, access to email can mean access to much more than your emails. It could also mean access to your files stored on the cloud, which can be even more threatening.

Here are 5 ways you can secure your email login.

1. HTTPS Connection

When you access your web email account, you should use HTTPS and not HTTP. In fact, Gmail too has upgraded its security with HTTPS becoming the default type of connection. When you access a webmail over HTTP connection, your login becomes vulnerable.

Make sure to check the webmail’s URL to ensure that it starts with HTTPS. You can also type HTTPS before the webmail address if it doesn’t already have it. If this doesn’t work, it means that the email service provider doesn’t support secure connect.

2. Make Sure to Log-in Regularly

This is an important step in keeping your email login secure. Many people access their email account occasionally. Many have multiple email accounts and use the secondary accounts rarely.

Make it a habit to login all your accounts every few days. This will help you keep informed whether your account is still accessible and if any messages have been deleted or any other unauthorized activity has taken place. If you think an account has no need, you should delete it.

3. Change Your Password Often

This is another important step in securing your email login. Remember, creating a secure password is not enough for ensuring that your account cannot be hacked. You must also keep changing the password on a regular basis. Every new password must be entirely different.

4. Activate Two-Step Verification

Another important step to secure your email login is to enable the two-step verification process. So no one will be able to login into your account even if they know your password, but can’t access your mobile. Most webmail service providers now offer this verification option. You can find this option with Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail sign in.

5. Caution with Webmail

When accessing your email account on a publicly accessible system, make sure to avoid leaving digital footprints.

Despite being the simplest step, many users make the mistake of not signing out of their account. However, even logging out may not provide much protection. Hackers can use the cookies and browser history to break into your account.

6. Avoid Saving Sensitive Data on your Email

Emails continue to play an even more important role in everyone’s lives. This means that your email accounts can have lots of sensitive information.

Even if you use all the precautions for securing your email login, it is recommended to avoid saving highly sensitive data in your emails. You can delete such sensitive information after having sent or shared it.

If you follow these tips, you will be making the best efforts in ensuring secure email login.