I use technology. I rely on technology. But I’ve never been the sort of person to read up on settings or chase the latest updates. For years, our family just used the same free email accounts we’d always used, and it never really crossed my mind that there was anything to reconsider.

Then I read about someone who’d been hacked. Someone had accessed their inbox and the idea of a stranger reading years of my family’s personal correspondence was enough to make me think about our own setup differently.

What I actually looked into

I started with a simple question: how secure are the accounts we use every day? The answer was more complicated than I expected. Free email accounts from the big providers are convenient, but they come with trade-offs. Some traditional free providers that do not prioritise privacy make money from user data in ways that most people do not think about when they sign up.

I also hadn’t considered what would happen if one of us clicked something we should not have. Our accounts were not set up with two-factor authentication, and we had not explored online security solutions that could make managing passwords and account access safer. Passwords had been reused. It was not a disaster waiting to happen, but it was not as solid as I had assumed.

The NCSC guidance that actually helped

A lot of what I found online when researching this was either too technical or trying to sell me something. The most straightforward resource I came across was the family cybersecurity guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre. It is written for normal people, not IT professionals, and it covers the basics in a way that is genuinely easy to act on.

Two-factor authentication was the first thing I set up after reading it. It takes about five minutes and makes a real difference to how secure an account is.

Why we changed our email provider

We switched to a privacy-focused email provider. One where protecting your data is the whole point, not an afterthought. It took an afternoon to sort out, which felt like a lot at the time, but I haven’t had to think about it since.

The children’s accounts were the part I felt most strongly about. They’re growing up with their digital lives already in motion and I wanted to feel confident that the foundations were right.

What I wish I’d done sooner

Honestly, I wish I had not waited for a reason to look into it. None of the changes we made were complicated or expensive. They just required setting aside a bit of time to actually do it.

If you’ve been meaning to look at your family’s email setup and keep putting it off, this is your nudge. It is less daunting than it sounds.