Most of us register for online services with our emails, one of the longest trends in the digital era. From signing up on social media sites to registering for services on online portals, emails serve not only serve communication purposes but are also used for identity.
Hackers thus use emails to access our private information through email spoofing, social engineering tools or inserting viruses into our computers.
Spoofing is whereby a spammer sends emails from a known domain to trick you into thinking that you are familiar with them. this person and opens the mail. Such emails contain suspicious links, doubtful content, requests to transfer money, or a share of spoils if you assist them in receiving money.
Promotional messages contain huge discounts or redirecting links that are used to hijack your email. Electronic mails are thus subject to malware attacks as is the case with other computer-mediated communication sites.
Studies have established that Gmail accounts are now prone to compromise during password reset. According to the findings, hackers have managed to develop malware with the capacity to bypass the security details required to log in to your Gmail account.
Forbes, on August 4, reported that a North Korean hacking company had been indicted for accessing emails, without necessarily using the login details.
This exposes your emails to the risk of being read by a third party. Nonetheless, Gmail has a mechanism for securing your account from unauthorized login and other suspicious activities.
A Unique and Strong Password
Google always insists on every user creating a unique password while signing up.
This requires the user to create a password that combines numbers, letters, and special characters. The email service provider discourages the use of simple passwords like 123, QWERTY (easy to crack keyboard letters), or date of birth in a bid to wade off the risk of compromise.
The recommended Google password structure reduces the risk of a third party intercepting information during transit or access at storage.
Two-Step Verification
Having the two-factor authentication protocol also counts as a precautionary measure in protecting your information from intruders.
These two steps notify a user of an attempt to login into an account from a different device. For example, while logging in to an account through a PC, a user is required to confirm the log-in attempt in the mobile phone used to register that particular Google account.
This guarantees an extra layer of security, keeping off hackers who manage to copy your password.
Google Account Security Checkup
It is also advisable to regularly conduct security checkups on your device. These checkups would enable you to identify log-in attempts, as well as the date and location of any unauthorized login.
Further, Google security check will also enable you to review security settings in terms of the applications you have granted access to your Google account.
In addition, information technology experts also advise users to explore more options in beefing up the security of their accounts. This includes installing security applications.
