There are many vital tools that we rely on to get through our day, coffee, transportation, our mobile device, our email accounts. Without any of these, our daily lives can hit road blocks.
Imagine how I felt when I realized that my Gmail account was hacked? Gmail is such a safe and reliable tool; it’s so popular and so successful that it generates a vast amount of interest. Some of that interest, however, can be malicious. There are many cyber criminals itching to get into your personal accounts. Once in, they will have access to all of your personal or business correspondence. Credit card numbers, bank accounts, ID’s, social insurance numbers, addresses and much more.
So is Gmail really the safest app for your Android?
The answer lies not so much in the app its self, but in you. Do you use your Android without the safety of a security app? If so, then you just might be putting yourself and your personal information at risk of being hacked. Just like you wouldn’t drive your car without valid insurance, you absolutely shouldn’t use your android online without a reliable security application to protect you and your personal data.
Do you respond to unsolicited, unknown emails? Once more, you could be putting yourself at risk.
Many cyber criminals favor a technique called Phishing: Phishing is an extremely popular and by far the easiest method of hacking someone’s account. This method can’t work unless you fall for the scam. Meaning, if you receive an email from let’s say “Gmail” that asks you to sign in or to verify your details, and you carelessly click the link and provide your log in and password, you have just fallen for a Phishing scam. All of the details that you have entered automatically is submitted and stored in hacker’s logs. Phishing pages can easily be created and hosted on fake websites, with similar addresses to the original page. This fools you into giving your information and puts you in danger. Having a good security app might not save you in this case! It’s up to you to learn to recognize fake “Phishing” emails.
Recognizing that your Gmail account has been hacked:
Another important aspect of protecting your accounts from being hacked is to focus on recognizing when your Gmail account has been hacked. Sometimes you will receive an alert from Gmail, but what if you don’t? What if you placed these alerts in spam and you don’t know when someone has actually accessed your account?
I know that on my android, I receive alerts immediately whenever I (or someone else) logs into my account. It might become annoying when it’s almost always only you logging in. But it’s vital not to ignore or spam these alerts. You never know who might be waiting to hack your Gmail account.
It is very unlikely that someone hacks Gmail itself. It is most likely that the channel has been open by the account holder. This could happen in some ways, so here are some tips to keeping your Gmail account from being hacked:
- Do not log in from shared devices: You could forget to sign out, or the shared device may be tracking your information such as passwords, logins, etc.
- Don’t share your personal log in information with anyone, no matter what: be it your friend, a device technician or anyone who tries to gain your trust to gather up information that should remain confidential.
- Don’t trust unexpected email: Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Godaddy and a whole lot more of official websites will NEVER ask you for your personal information from the email. They won’t need you to verify your log in or password, they won’t ask for your credit card (unless you are making a purchase online!) so please before you click any links from strange looking emails that claim to be a trusted company, don’t! Just look at the from address, and I bet you will see that the sender is a scammer. If you do happen to click on the link, then the web page that opens up will also offer you clues as to if the email is legitimate or a scam.