Ways to Secure your Email Account

1. Always Use HTTPS – This is a great feature from security point of view offered by Email service providers. HTTPS is secure protocol for transmission of vital information on web in encrypted form. Although, when we sign into our Email account, https is used but to make sure https is used throughout our session for our Email account. HTTPS makes mail little slower than normal but security should be of our prime concern.

2. Remember to log out – Log out whenever you have completed checking mails even if you’re on your own computer. If you’re on public computer like in cyber cafe, make sure you had unchecked “Remember me” or “keep me signed in” option while logging into account. Clear cookies, passwords before leaving public PC.

3. Audit – First netizens should know their own public ip address. You can know your ip address by visiting websites like www.showmyip.com / www.whatismyip.com. You know your own ip address, Now find out the ip address from where your Email account was opened last time. If you are using Gmail In the footer, at the very bottom of your inbox, you will see information about last sessions – Last activity : ip address : Details . Just hit on details button and you can see when was your account accessed and from which ip address.

 You can also use this feature there to log out all sessions if you find any session open or if you forgot to log out on your friend’s pc or public computers. One should make habit of checking/ auditing Gmail account session details regularly.

4. Don’t disclose – Don’t disclose your id and password to anybody. You might get fake email asking for your Email id and password, but remember,  Google, Yahoo, Hotmail or any banking web site  never asks you to disclose your password. Stay safe. Also, some websites have features to invite your Email contacts to network with you on their website, for this they ask you to enter your Email id and password – Don’t give your Email details to untrusted or small or new , unestablished websites .

5. Change your password – Once in two months or so, you should change your password but remember the new one!! Don’t use easy to guess password i.e. don’t use your mobile number, date of birth, your girlfriend’s number as your password! Use password of at least 8 characters. Don’t use repetitive letters in passwords as aaaa1111. Don’t use your Gmail account password as passwords on other websites. I find many people use the same password for variety of websites so if one of your passwords is hacked, all are hacked.

6. Check links – Don’t fall prey to phishing attempt. Your so called friend might give you a link stating that it the link to new and feature packed advanced banking or Gmail or hotmail, you then try to log onto the link given by your friend and your friend gets your id and password. So always check links before hitting on any such links.

7. Keep your account up to date – Keep your account recovery option updated and remember your security question and answer so that you can recover your password in case if something wrong happens. Although, after reading this post and following accordingly, such unfortunate case is nowhere to stand. You can also add phone number to account for recovery purposes.

8. Use updated internet security suite (Internet browser, Antivirus, Firewall, Antispyware) on your pc - This point is also very important because your computer might have been compromised by a trojan, keylogger or virus which may distribute your account details to remote hacker. Update your browser, operating system, security softwares, mail applications so that you should not be vulnerable to latest exploits and hacks.

9. Attachments – Email service providers scans every attachment you receive or send for virus or other such kind of threats but even then, it is not advised to download attachments from untrusted source. This will keep your computer safe and so your account.

10. Spam – Don’t waste your time reading spam messages. Spam messages are not only waste of time but also may prove to be a security concern as spams may contain links to malicious websites.

Detecting suspicious account activity

A few weeks ago, I got an email presumably from a friend stuck in London asking for some money to help him out. It turned out that the email was sent by a scammer who had hijacked my friend's account. By reading his email, the scammer had figured out my friend's whereabouts and was emailing all of his contacts. Here at Google, we work hard to protect Gmail accounts against this kind of abuse. Today we're introducing a new feature to notify you when we detect suspicious login activity on your account.

You may remember that a while back we launched remote sign out and information about recent account activity to help you understand and manage your account usage. This information is still at the bottom of your inbox. Now, if it looks like something unusual is going on with your account, we’ll also alert you by posting a warning message saying, "Warning: We believe your account was last accessed from…" along with the geographic region that we can best associate with the access.



To determine when to display this message, our automated system matches the relevant IP address, logged per the Gmail privacy policy, to a broad geographical location. While we don't have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed, a login appearing to come from one country and occurring a few hours after a login from another country may trigger an alert.

By clicking on the "Details" link next to the message, you'll see the last account activity window that you're used to, along with the most recent access points.



If you think your account has been compromised, you can change your password from the same window. Or, if you know it was legitimate access (e.g. you were traveling, your husband/wife who accesses the account was also traveling, etc.), you can click "Dismiss" to remove the message.

Keep in mind that these notifications are meant to alert you of suspicious activity but are not a replacement for account security best practices. If you'd like more information on account security, read these tips on keeping your information secure.

Finally, we know that security is also a top priority for businesses and schools, and we look forward to offering this feature to Google Apps customers once we have gathered and incorporated their feedback.