You probably won't believe me, but, my Google Email account was hacked. The other day, I read an article in The Guardian about peoples GMail accounts being compromised, so straight away, I logged into my GMail account and checked the last account activity by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking on Last Account Activity.
This showed that my accounthad been accessed from the USA and Japan and showed the IP addresses. I was lucky to catch this before something bad happened like this article in The Guardian.
Whilst experiencing this, I compiled a top five tips to help you make your account secure if you feel that it has been used by another or if it has been hacked:-
- Change your password immediately. To choose a strong password, think of a memorable phrase of 8-9 words, take the first letter of each word, add a special character and a few numbers.
- Always Use HTTPS connections to log into your email provider or if you are buying something online and it is asking for secure, personal details like credit card numbers, names and addresses.
- Create a backup email. My primary email is with GMail but my now backup email is with Yahoo!. I recommend going with a different provider for security reasons. Remember to update the security settings on the account that has been compromised. Make your secondary email address if you forget your password your backup email with a different provider.
- Give NO-ONE any details about your password. This is important, because news can spread!
- Do not open messages from people you do not know. Even if it is an innocent link, do not click on it because Text Keyloggers can be downloaded undetected onto your computer. If you do not know what a keylogger is, read this.
Please do not download files from untrusted sources. I recommend Download.com, SourceForge and Brothersoft. This is not to say that other websites are untrusted, this is just the most trusted ones.
Any security tips, you can email me them. Pat@TheGeekPanel.com
