How To Keep Your Gmail Account Safe

WE ALL hear about someone we know getting hacked and we hear horror stories about people who have money taken out of their accounts and very serious criminal activity that could ruin someone’s financial situation in a heartbeat.

After many surveys and studies, it has become apparent that the most common way that people get hacked is via email.

Email hacking is so common because it is the best method to get to know passwords people use to access other networks.

Most of us will use their main email account to open accounts in several places, which includes social media and all kinds of services.

The biggest issue is when bank account info is stolen or any other password that leads to websites that you earn money from.

With that said, one of the most popular free email providers is Gmail.

A lot of people use Gmail as their main email account and this is even more common now that so many services work with a single Gmail account to login. YouTube and Google plus being two of the most popular.

Here are some great tips that will help you keep your Gmail account safe from hacking.

CREATE A GOOD PASSWORD
Believe it or not, there are still people out there who use passwords like ‘qwerty’ and ‘12345’. The best way to create a password is to make it random and avoid using your birthday or your pet’s name. These are all things anyone could easily find out to hack your account. Use passwords that contain letter and numbers and if possible, also include upper cases and symbols to make it even harder and prevent hacking.

NEVER OPEN EMAILS FROM UNKNOWN SOURCES
Though this should be common knowledge, some people still fail to follow this advice and end up getting hacked for following a link that takes them to a screen asking to login with their Gmail account. The screen is a decoy that captures the users email account and password.

CHECK YOUR FORWARDING
You should take the time to check the settings that you have on your email and make sure that your email forwarding is set to an account that you selected. Some hackers will actually leave your email untouched and simple get forwards by setting their own email for this purpose.

CHECK YOUR COMPUTER FOR MALWARE
You can have a virus in your computer and not even be aware of the damage it’s doing. Do a good scan of your computer and this will give you peace of mind. There are many reliable scanners and antivirus software options that you can choose from.

DON’T USE A PUBLIC COMPUTER TO LOGIN
Only use a public computer to login to your email account when it’s a serious emergency. There is no way for you to know the state of the computer and if it might be infected.

You should never use the same password for an account for more than six months. Even if you consider this to be a hassle, you should change it at least once a year.

These little steps will help you protect your account from any hacking. If you use Gmail to store a lot of important information, these are essential security measures to follow.

Source: - voice-online