How Can I Secure My Free E-Mail Accounts?

In the past several months, I've lost count of the instances of people who have called the offices of Integral stating that their e-mail has been hacked. The truth is if people would take a more proactive approach to protecting their e-mail, they could prevent email hacks. You can always decrease your risk by not having accounts on free services where access and security are out of your control. However, free is within everyone's budget so I am going to share with you some quick tips to help you secure your E-mail account.

Create funky passwords. No pet names, no spouse names, no nicknames - nothing that is personally identifiable. Instead create passwords that are at least 8 characters in length that contain a combo of capital letters and lower case, numbers and special characters. Then, never write your password where eyes other than your own can view it. If you need to share your password with someone for any reason, immediately change that password when their access is no longer necessary or required.

Clean it Up. If you must use a free Web-based service make a point of clearing out your e-mail in and out boxes oft