Some people think that nobody would be interested in reading their email, so their email password doesn’t need to be secure. However if a hacker accesses your email consider the following common occurrences:
- A hacker can change your password and lock you out of your account.
- A hacker can go to financial and shopping websites and have password reset requests sent to your email address. With access to your financially related websites in the hands of a bad guy, you could potentially lose thousands of dollars.
- A hacker can copy your contact list and/or send emails on your behalf asking for money or send spam and malware that appears to come from you.
If your email password is not unique or easily guessed by others, please see how to change your email password.
I suggest reading this more in-depth article by security researcher and former Washington Post reporter, Brian Krebs: The Value of a Hacked Email Account.