This is the ultimate goal of hackers: this tool that you use every day must be absolutely protected.

Hackers have multiple techniques to access your data. But there is one thing that you use every day that particularly interests them.

This article was published as part of a partnership with Cybermoi/s, an event organized by Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr to raise awareness of cybersecurity issues.

There are many computer scams out there today. Whether it's the good old fake SMS, identity theft or falsified QR code, hackers are very ingenious when they want to view and steal your personal data. Obviously, their more or less long-term goal is to be able to access your most sensitive information, starting with your banking data to extract money from you. But to do this, they often need to reach a specific first tool that you should protect at all costs.

We tend to overlook it, but it is access to your mailbox that is often the first step in the most painful hacking. In many cases, hackers will try to access your personal email in order to then reach other services. When you think about it, it is quite logical: the majority of your personal accounts, with merchants, operators, public services, or even your bank, have been created from your email address. If a hacker has managed to get into your mailbox, he should sooner or later be able to connect to many other services.

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The cause: the “Forgotten Password” function used by many services, which consists of reconfiguring a password by entering a simple email address. Once the link used to create a new password is sent to your email and retrieved by a hacker, it will be very easy for them to connect in your place. Not to mention the login validations, which are also sent… to your mailbox!

This is why the platform that you must protect as much as possible is indeed your mailbox. The latter must therefore have a strong username and password. It is also strongly recommended to change your mailbox password from time to time (if possible every 6 months) and to check on sites like haveibeenpwned if your account is compromised or affected. by a recent security breach. As a reminder, a good password is long, complicated to guess, has lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers and special characters. It should definitely not refer to something in your circle, such as a birthday or the first name of a loved one.

For even more effective protection, some mailboxes offer two-factor authentication. This allows you to confirm new connections via SMS or another email address. To find out how to add this protection, simply type “two-factor authentication” as well as your Google email service for instructions.