Securing your Gmail Account, a 5 Part Process
Securing your Gmail Account, a 5 Part Process
Gmail is an excellent free online email service from Google. It allows users a generous data allowance, integrates fully with the rest of Google and is packed with great features. Sadly, Gmail is often targeted by malicious hackers seeking to gain access to user's Gmail accounts. To make your account as secure as possible, just follow these five easy steps.
1.Your Computer
a. Check for viruses and malware
The first step when seeking to secure your Gmail Account involves scanning for malicious software that's present on your computer. Many anti-virus programs scan continuously in the background. If yours does not, you need to carry out manual scans regularly, as malicious software such as viruses can make your Gmail Account insecure. It is important to keep your anti-virus software up to date to protect email security.
b. Make sure your operating system is up to date
Operating systems are constantly being looked at for possible security flaws, by their creators, as well as malicious hackers. Due to the evolving nature of operating systems it is essential to install all the latest updates to protect from the latest security threats. An excellent way to do this is setting the operating system to update automatically. If it is not set for automatic update then it is essential to check for updates regularly. This goes for Windows or Mac OS.
c. Make sure to perform regular software updates
Malware and OS updates are not the only way of protecting your Gmail Account from your own computer. Regularly updating software, particularly Adobe Flash and similar programs, is an absolute essential. These programs sometimes contain security vulnerabilities which updates fix. By staying up to date with the software you are protecting your email from any software related weaknesses.
2. Your Browser
a. Make sure your browser is up to date
Your internet browser is an obvious vulnerability for email security as it is the software used to gain access to a Gmail account. Keeping it up to date with the latest version released protects from security flaws. This is a similar process to updating other software for the same reason. Updating your browser differs depending on the browser in use. For Google Chrome the update is automatically installed when there's a new version so you do not need to do anything manually. In Firefox, simply click the tab labeled 'Help' and within that 'Check for updates', and from there the update process is simple. In Internet Explorer click 'Tools' and then 'Windows Update'.
b. Check your browser for plug-ins, extensions, and third-party programs/tools that require access to your Google Account credentials
Many modern internet browsers feature the ability for you to add plug-ins and other extra features. Although these add-ons are great for adding function, they may also pose a security risk. If any of them need access to your Gmail account then your password is potentially at risk. The only way to make sure these third-party extras do not compromise your Gmail security is to remove them.
3.Your Google Account
a.Change Your Password
One of the easiest but most commonly overlooked ways of keeping an email account safe is through proper password management. Choosing a new password should become part of your email management routine and is especially vital if you believe your account compromised. Several tips in this area include regularly changing your password, making sure your Gmail password is unique to Gmail only and is not in use elsewhere, and picking a hard to guess password. To make your password difficult to guess use a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols while avoiding common words which could be found in a dictionary.
b.Update your account recovery options
Account recovery is the process by which users can regain entry into their accounts if their password becomes forgotten. To change your settings in this area sign in to your account and click 'Recovering Your Password' to change or check the following options. A recovery email address is another email address, separate from your Gmail account, which you have access to. If you forget your password, Gmail can email this address with details of how to regain entry into your account.
SMS, or mobile text messaging, can also be used to recover your Gmail account. By providing Google with an SMS compatible phone number they can contact you in this way if you ever need to recover your account. For this reason make sure you update this number if you ever change phones.
Secret Question is the last option for account recovery. It is only available if the above two methods are not a possibility as it is more vulnerable to exploitation than them. If you do use a secret question, make sure the answer is something that only you would know or be able to figure out. If the question and answer are easy to work out then it lessens your Gmail account security.
c. Check the list of websites that are authorized to access your Google Account data
Just as third-party browser extras can maliciously access your Gmail account, so can websites. To check which websites have access to your Gmail account sign in to your account, click 'my account'. Having done this you will be able to view all the websites that can get into your account by clicking 'authorizing applications and sites'. If an unwanted site is on there then block its access to your account by clicking on 'Revoke Access'.
4.Your Gmail settings
a.Use a secure connection to sign in
Often it is convenient and sometimes essential to connect to Gmail via a public network such as that found at a library, coffee shop or hotel. To make sure your information is not intercepted maliciously on these networks choose 'Always use HTTPS' in your Gmail settings.
b.Check for any strange recent activity on your account
By clicking 'Details' at the bottom of your account screen, next to 'Last Account Activity', you can see full information on the most recent access to your account to make sure no-one other than yourself has logged in.
c.Confirm the accuracy of your mail settings to ensure that your mail stays and goes where you want it to
One way in which people exploit your Gmail account for malicious purposes is through tampering with mail settings. To check these, click 'Settings' once signed into your account, you can check information such as your auto-response, forwarding and other settings to ensure they are as you want them.
d.Check your contacts for errors
A common sign of malicious activity on a Gmail account is your contacts section not containing all the information you believed it to. If this is the case, by clicking 'Contacts', you will see an option to restore your contact details to an earlier time period where the correct information was present.
5.Final Reminders
a. One sure sign of suspicious activity is messages asking for account information such as your password. Always ignore these as Gmail will never ask for such information.
b. Always access Gmail directly to sign in as some malicious websites will make themselves visually resemble the Gmail login page to steal your password information.
c. Keep your password for Gmail exclusively for Gmail - if you use it on other sites, it may fall into the wrong hands, leading to possible security breaches of your Gmail account.
d. Clear personal data such as cookies and caches often. This is even more important if you are not using a private computer.
e. Never use the option to stay signed in unless it is on your personal computer you are confident no-one else will use.
f. After you've finished reading or sending emails be sure to log out completely.
Finally, two last things to consider. Firstly, although Gmail features duplicate removal, it is worth checking through yourself as some emails with only minor differences may make it through the Gmail filter. Duplicate email refers to messages which are the same - removing them saves space and improves performance. Secondly, contacts can also be streamlined. Over time it is natural to have out of date contact information for a person or company or have contacts which are no longer useful. By removing these you can increase productivity by ensuring the right, up to date information will always be readily available.
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