On Monday, news reports announced that hackers gained access to several thousand Hotmail accounts through a possible phishing attack. According to the BBC, the list of hacked e-mail addresses also contained information from Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast and EarthLink accounts.

“We recently became aware of a phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for web-based mail accounts including a small number of Gmail accounts. As soon as we learned of the attack, we forced password resets on the affected accounts. We will continue to force password resets on additional accounts if we become aware of them,” the Google spokesperson wrote.

Identity theft is a real problem, and this report is just the tip of the iceberg. So how can you make sure your personal information is safe?

Here are a few tips:

1. Never click through any warnings about certificates. That’s a red flag– one you should not ignore.
2. Be very careful when opening unsoliticed attachments and links from any source.
3. Install and regularly update your anti-virus software.