Email protection best practices

Step 1: Scan for viruses

If you suspect that your email account has been hacked, you should first scan all your computers, tablets, and smartphones with access to your GMX account for viruses. Be sure to use an up-to-date antivirus software program for this. In addition, you should make sure to scan your devices for other forms of malware like worms and Trojans.

Step 2: Data check

One indicator that your email account has been hacked is that your personal information or settings have been changed in some way. Check your GMX mailbox under ‘My Account’ to see if your contact email address or other personal information like your mobile phone number has been changed. Are the filter rules and redirects in your mailbox settings still the way you set them?

Step 3: Change your passwords

If you have found malware on your computer or other device, change your GMX password for security reasons. That’s one of the most important steps towards ensuring email protection! Do this even if you have had to change your password recently. Enter the new password in the GMX Apps installed on your mobile devices, as well as any other email programs you might use like Outlook. One of the most important aspects of email password protection is to never use the same password for different services – especially not your email password! If you suspect that your email account has been hacked, as a precaution, you should also change the passwords associated with other accounts like those from eBay, Amazon, PayPal and any social media accounts like Facebook.

Here's how to change your password.

Step 4: Choose secure passwords and change your passwords regularly

Change your passwords on a regular basis to reduce the likelihood of being hacked. Secure passwords are at least 8 characters in length (though at least 12 characters in length are even better!), have a mixture of both upper and lowercase letters, use both letters and numbers, and have at least one special character. Only associate one account with each password and make sure the passwords you choose are hard to guess.
Here's how you choose a secure password.