How To Keep Your Gmail Account Secure From Hackers
The security of your Gmail account is extremely important. All your important and confidential emails are stored inside Gmail and your Gmail account is also linked with other online accounts. If your Gmail account is hacked, it will lead to losing all important data along with other online accounts being hacked as well; including all of the other Google services you are using.
There are many ways you can secure your Gmail account, and we are going to help you tighten up your Gmail account security. Below we have listed some tips and security measures to protect your Gmail account from getting hacked.
1. Enable Gmail Two-Step Verification
This is the best security measure you can take to keep your Gmail account secure. Google offers 2-step Verification security for your Google account that will allow you to log in to Google services (including Gmail) with a password and a code sent to your phone. You will have to provide your Gmail password and a one-time code sent to your phone to access Gmail.
This makes it almost impossible for anyone to hack your account as they need your Gmail password and physical access to your phone. Settings up Gmail 2-Step Verification is extremely easy and we have written a step-by-step guide on how to enable 2-Step Verification for your Google account.
2. Use a Strong Password and Never Use the Same Passwords Online
Using a strong password is extremely important for any online account, but it is especially important for your Gmail account security. Your password should contain random words, numerals, characters, and uppercase and lowercase letters. If you can easily pronounce your password or memorize it, then it is definitely not a strong password. Your password should be something like this; “gT34PW$%*fEt$$90”.
Furthermore, you should never use the same password on multiple accounts (especially your email account password). If one of your online accounts gets hacked, then it could lead to getting all your accounts hacked. We understand it can be very difficult to remember multiple strong passwords. However, you can take advantage of third-party password managers like LastPass or your browser’s built-in password manager to remember and automatically enter passwords.
3. Track Gmail Login Activity and Sign out Remotely
Gmail lets you see the last 10 logins to your Gmail account along with your IP address, device, browser, and exact time. You can use this information to ensure your account is not being secretly accessed by a device you don’t own or recognize. To track Gmail login activity, go to the extreme bottom of the main interface and click on “Details” under “Last account activity”.
You will see the last 10 logins to your Gmail account along with complete details. You can click on the “Show details” button next to each to see more details. However, don’t get confused by “Authorized Application” logins as they are the applications that you are allowed to access your Gmail account to provide services. You can also press the “Sign out all other web sessions” button above to log out of all the sessions.
4. Tweak Gmail Security Settings
Many settings in Gmail could affect the security of your account in one way or another. You should make sure there is no problem in these settings to secure your Gmail account. To access all Gmail settings, click on the “Gear” icon in the top right corner and select “Settings”. Below are some settings you should tweak:
- Enable “Personal level indicators” under the “General” tab to know whether a suspicious email is personally sent to you or it is just a scam being sent to everyone.
- Make sure the Vacation responder is Off under the “General” tab if you are not using it.
- Under the “Accounts and Import” tab, make sure only verified accounts are listed next to “Send mail as”.
- Under the same “Accounts and Import” tab, the “Grant access to your account” and “Check mail from other accounts” options should have no email addresses; or only have verified email addresses if you are using these features.
- Check all the options under “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” and disable all the settings you are not using.
5. Never Give Up Your Account Information
There are hundreds of methods scammers can use to trick you and steal your account information. The rule of thumb is to never trust anyone and never give up your information. No legit person or company will ever ask for your account information to give gifts, offers, or jobs, help you fix issues, or protect your account in any way. If someone asks for your password (even Google), simply decline and ignore the email.
Furthermore, also refrain from clicking on links from sources you don’t trust. And never log in to any account after clicking through a link. A phishing attack can easily steal your information and hack your account.
Related: Top Android security apps
Is Your Gmail Account Secure?
You can follow the above tips to secure your Gmail account and keep the hackers out. You can also go through the Security Checkup offered by Google to ensure your account credentials are secure and recoverable. Additionally, if you are looking for a safe Gmail experience, then you should also encrypt confidential emails.
Are you confident that your Gmail account is now secure from hackers? If it has somehow been compromised, here is our guide to recover a hacked Gmail account.
Let us know if you have more security tips to protect your Gmail account in the comments below.
Good tips. I’d like to a couple more –
1. Please ensure your “recovery email” account is also strongly secured and protected. (This is the backup email address you have to reset your Google password, in case you need to.)
2. You can also consider using a physical security key—I’d recommend YubiKey—to add an extra good layer of protection. If you have a strong need to ensure added security, you can certainly consider this. For example, I use it for my office computers and start-up accounts. So, now I am more assured that even if someone targets to log into my commercial account, s/he won’t simply be able to (reasonably saying).
Hope you find it useful. Thank you!
Best regards
Thanks for the nice additions Oli. If you have confidential information stored inside Gmail —for example if you are working at corporate level— then a physical key will surely help.
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Apart from not building strong password, can gmail accounts, looking at the security level that Google offers it, be hacked?
Theoretically, everything can be hacked. Security measures just lower the probability of hacking. I mean, even if you have a strong password, a virus on your PC can still easily steal it. So these measures will just extremely lower the probability of hacking.
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