Having a Gmail account hacked could be terrific if you want that this has not happened to you! then learn how to secure and protect your account right now.
Gmail is the most popular free service email which is used by millions of people all around the world. Billions of emails and messages are sent and received daily through google’s email software. many of these messages consist of private and secret information.
Unfortunately, it’s true that malicious hacks, phishing attacks, and password leaks are becoming more generic. You’ll need to secure your Gmail account to stop your private email from ending up in someone else’s hands.
let’s come we will tell you how to secure and protect your Gmail account in only six easy steps.
Table of Contents
1. Open Your Google Account Settings
Visit Gmail and click on your profile picture at the top right of the page, which will open the Google menu. From there, select Manage your Google Account. When you logged up to Gmail, Google also made a single account for you to access all of their services. And we can say it as your Google Account.
Each service has its own settings and options, but critical information like your password, two-factor authentication, and other personal details are managed through your Google account. On the left menu, select Security.
2. Resolve Security Issues
As part of an effort to help secure and protect your account, Google gives security recommendations. If there are rest issues, these will be mentioned at the top of your account’s Security page. Even if there are no suggestions, click Secure account at the bottom of the Security issues found area.
This will take you to the analysis of your Google account’s security status. The website uses a traffic light scheme to warn you to sections that need attention. If all six parts are green, then you can move on to other sections. Otherwise, follow the guidelines mentioned in each part to improve your Gmail security
3. Update Password and Two-Factor Authentication
Again come back to your Google account’s Security page screen, there is an overview given on the page which is Signing in to Google. on this page, you can see when your account’s password was last changed, and whether you have enabled two-factor authentication. It is good practice to change your account’s password for a stronger one, especially if you reuse passwords.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a step to the login process. After filling in your username and password, you’ll be asked to fill up a temporary code. This is used to secure that it is you signing in, and not just someone with your credentials. It is absolutely worth securing all your accounts with 2FA.
Google offers some options for this service; an authenticator app (like Google Authenticator or Authy) or an SMS code. If you use an Android phone, you may also be capable of creating an authentication notification on your phone, too.
4. Assess Recent Security Activity
After you’ve finished Google’s protection checkup, made clear you’re using a secure and strong password, and enabled two-factor authentication, you can review and check past security events on your account. On the main Security settings page, scroll and check until you reach the Recent security activity option.
This part displays any login or access events in the past 28 days. Each feature shows the device or app and the date of the event. If you open a single event, there is extra detail like the IP address, estimated location, and browser.
Even if this is a read-only part, so you can’t edit or change any settings here, it should warn you as to whether any suspicious activity has appeared on your account. Google even has an alert on this page, observing that if you watch something suspicious, you should follow instructions to secure your account.
5. Review Your Devices
If you’ve checked over your recent security activity and found nothing doubtful, you can advance to analyzing devices with access to your Google account. In the section Your devices header, select Manage devices. This shows you a list of every device currently signed in to your Gmail account.
You can select to log out of unused or earlier devices. They show in a different collection classification Where you’ve signed out. Identifying each may be a little competitive; if the activity came from a Windows PC, for example, the log would only show the device name as Windows, rather than something different.
If you’re in doubt, err on the side of attention and log out. The worst that’ll happen is you’ll need to sign in again on that device.
6. Manage Third-Party Apps
After logging out from devices, you should review the Third-party apps with account access from the Security settings page. This mention details every app you’ve accessed in your Google or Gmail account. As with other sections of your account, the list is an overview, and you can choose each item to increase the detail.
You may observe the app, but that doesn’t undoubtedly mean you should leave it untouched. Seeing the item grants you to view the data that the app has the approval to access. This is a necessary step, especially as in 2018, Google admitted that third-party apps can read your Gmail messages.
If it’s an email app, it’ll likely have access to your Gmail account and be able to send emails in your favour. However, you may not have given it accurate approval to access all of your Google Drive content, for example.
Besides, if you earlier use one of the apps which are on the list, you should delete it from your account. If you don’t observe an item on the list and don’t trust you ever gave it access to your account, there is a choice to flag it to Google by choosing the Report this app link.
