Many of us still have the old email addresses. Accounts perhaps opened during adolescence and no longer used, perhaps even forgotten. According to computer security experts, however, keeping these email accounts open could be risky. Therefore, every now and then, it would be good to “do a cleanup”, checking all our emails and deciding which ones to actually keep active.
Let’s think, for example, of the very old Msn accounts, often opened only to chat with our friends. They are email boxes that we no longer use, but that perhaps we keep because inside them there are memories, such as messages from distant friends, loved ones, or relatives who unfortunately are no longer with us. The opinion of the experts is unanimous. These emails should be closed, because they constitute a vulnerability which can be used by hackers. So it would be better to save the messages that are still important to us, and then proceed to close the account.
Old email addresses, explains those in the sector, are very dangerous flaws. If on one hand there are us, who in some cases even forget to have certain accounts, on the other there are the hackerwhich instead are just waiting to find weak points to insert themselves into. Cybercriminals could use old accounts to carry out their scams. How? By taking over our email boxes to hit yet another victim. In practice, they are able to scam someone using an email address that can be traced back to us. They can send messages of phishing hiding behind our accounts. The victims are people related to us, who know us or knew us. Seeing our old email address, they are more likely to open the message, and so they end up in the trap.
But it doesn’t end there. Cybercriminals can also get hold of our personal data.
Our old accounts, in fact, may still contain sensitive informationsuch as bank passwords, or old conversations/images that can be used to blackmail us.
That’s why experts have no doubts. Old accounts, if no longer used, should be closed to prevent them from falling into the hands of hackers.