A Friend’s Personal Email Compromised

Most of our clients have heeded our advice (constant recommendations?) to setup security on their work email. This includes business class managed services, multi-factor authentication which is enforced, and strong passwords. More than once we’ve seen this combination safeguard our clients!

Understandably so, many personal email accounts are not as well safeguarded. A friend of ours, I’ll call him Joe, called me during the TUG conference asking for some help. His personal email was compromised! He had changed his password and purchased a new computer, but still wasn’t sure the bad actors were out of his life.

We got on his computer, signed out all sessions, helped him look for email rules, and took other steps to secure his new computer and his personal email. In the meantime, money was fraudulently wired and the bad actors were wreaking havoc! If you’re going to use a personal email for financial and even business transactions, consider setting up the business class tools we’ve shared. Or, for this kind of communication, keep it to the more secure business accounts. Either way, be sure to pick up the phone and call numbers known to you whenever money is involved! –CMW