How to Check if Your Gmail Account Has Been Hacked

How to Check if Your Gmail Account Has Been Hacked

Thu, May 20, 2010

 

If you’re worried about email security, here is a step by step guide to help you check and determine if your Gmail account has been hacked or compromised in any way.

Step 1: Find the ‘Last Account Activity’ Section Your Inbox

 

At the bottom of your Gmail inbox there is a ‘Last Account Activity’ section.  Click on ‘details’ to launch the full blown monitor.

Step 2: See who has accessed your Gmail account recently

Next, what you’ll see is a table of the most recent activity from your Gmail account.  It shows you

• How it was accessed (Browser/mobile etc)
• Where exactly the IP address is (So you can do some further digging)
• When it was accessed

Step 3: Understand the IP addresses – Has your Gmail really been hacked?

If you see IP addresses from different countries, don’t be too quick to panic.  If you use any 3rd party services which hook-up to your Gmail account, they will almost certainly show up in your activity log.  To do you own investigation, you can use DomainTools to identify the IP address. This will help you differentiate normal activity and your Gmail account being hacked.

Step 4: Understand the alerts – Google’s way of highlighting suspicious activity

Google will also do it’s fair share of monitoring, and will also alert you if it sees suspicious activity both in your inbox, as well as your recent activity log.  When this happens, and the IP addresses look suspicious, it is advisable to play it safe, assume your Gmail account has been hacked, and change your passwords immediately. 

Step 5: Sign Out All Other Sessions – If you forgot to sign out on a public computer

If you are worried you did not not sign out of a public computer, you can ‘sign out all other sessions’.  This won’t fix any hacked Gmail accounts, but it will resolve any careless mistakes. This is also useful if you happen to lose your mobile phone and you want to ensure your email is not read by others.

Step 6: What to do if your Gmail account has really been hacked

The first thing you do is change both your password and security question right away.  Then make sure your new choices are very secure.  Google themselves have some really good tips .  For example in the case of security questions:

• Choose a question only you know the answer to – make sure the question isn’t associated with your password.
• Pick a question that can’t be answered through research (for example, avoid your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, your first or last name, your social security number, your phone number, your pet’s name, etc.).
• Make sure your answer is memorable, but not easy to guess. Use an answer that is a complete sentence for even more security.

So there you have it.  A step-by-step guide on fully understanding Gmail’s account activity log, and how to check if your Gmail account has been hacked :)

Google Now Lets You Text Message from Gmail

Because we can't get enough new Gmail features, Google today rolled out a Gmail Labs feature that lets you send text messages from your Gmail chat window.
I got a hands-on demo of this simple, but useful feature from Gmail Product Manager Keith Coleman a half hour ago, when he had me send a text message to his iPhone from my Gmail account.
I simply entered his 10-digit area code and phone number in the chat window, and it offered me the option to send an SMS. I clicked on it, entered "Keith" as my contact, entered "This feature is cool" (like a geek) and hit Enter. I'm in Connecticut; Coleman is in Mountain View, Calif. He received my message in 3 seconds.
Coleman was a brand-new contact for me, so I had to enter his number to begin the SMS process. Users can SMS their existing Gmail chat contacts by opening a chat window and selecting the option to send an SMS.
Once you enter their phone numbers, it will save the digits in your contact entries. This means that when those contacts go offline, the chat window will give you the option to switch to SMS. Coleman said:
"This basically came from people saying, 'It's frustrating that when my friend goes offline, I can't chat with them,' so we decided to build something to address it."
There's more to the efficiency quotient. Usually, when you send an SMS from your computer to a phone, it shows up on the phone as a short code, or a super long number that changes all of the time.
When you send an SMS from Google chat, you get assigned a unique phone number for every pair of Gmail user and phone contact. That means that every time you SMS a contact, that contact will see the same number. That means the contact can add that to their contact lists on their phone. Coleman explained it thus:
"Let's say a month down the road, I'm at an airport and I know you're in front of your computer and I want to have you look up my flight information. I can just text you at that number, and it will show up right in your Gmail account."
Note, this Gmail Labs feature applies to U.S. phone numbers only. Now word yet on when it will be available internationally.
While Coleman claimed Google has no master plan regarding this incredible swath of Gmail features that have rolled out from Labs or via default in 2008, it's no secret Gmail is becoming a rich communications and collaboration tool.
Even better, most of these features will appeal to consumers and business users alike. This duality should make Gmail an attractive Web mail product for users looking to defect from Microsoft or Yahoo Web mail.