FAQ: How important is it to have a secure email password?

In a nutshell, very.

We are seeing increasing numbers of emails accounts hacked. Then, the compromised email address is used to send spam emails.

The best way for you to safeguard against this is to have a secure password.

A secure password is specific to your email address (i.e. not one that you use to log in to other web services).
It is at least 8 characters long and contains a mix of:

•uppercase letters such as A, B, C
•lowercase letters such as a, b,c
•numerals such as 1, 2, 3
•special characters such as $, ?, &
•alt characters such as µ, £, Æ.
               

Also consider changing your password from time-to-time, ideally once a month.
The downsides of having your email hacked vary, from the simple (annoying your friends and address book contacts with spam) to seeing your ISP or email provider black-listed as a spammer, which will then affect the whole user base of the ISP.