What to do if your email account gets Hijacked

[Guest ***nno**n***]

Thanks for your thoughts and guidance on this. Your information is mostly accurate and therefore very helpful.

 

As a side note Gmail has never been hacked because they have invested in the infrastructure necessary to block any hackers.

Ironically Microsoft (hotmail) has not and is OFTEN hacked.

 

Actually Gmail isn't that much better than hotmail for getting your account compromised (and there have been lots of cases, here is one: Google: Hundreds of Gmail accounts hacked, including some senior U.S. government officials) if you don't turn on their two-factor authentication (and the vast majority of people don't) and then use an app like the Google Authenticator on a smartphone, for those that do this risk is eliminated pretty much completely.

 

One risk you don't mention is using an untrusted computer at a hotel lobby, airport, Internet cafe or even a friend's house... key stroke loggers are often present, sometimes even the hardware type that are impossible to detect (we've found them embedded inside the keyboard, therefore out of sight, in hotel lobbies). Of course two factor authentication will even protect you from that.

 

On a side note: We trust SP's with a lot of personal information and the best ones do use technologies like Google Authenticator to ensure that information is kept private and for their eyes only. Most have smart phones that can run Google Authenticator and they very much need to do so, particularly the ones that travel at all.

[Guest ***nno**n***]

Yes you are right about the 2-step authentication, you do have to enable that manually.

Third party computers are a huge risk. Thanks for mentioning that.

 

The Google article was a looong time ago, 2011.

Microsoft was hacked in January 2013, Apple had a top level security breach in their OS in February causing massive panic to every iphone user. Java had a minor crisis too in February. Google has been silent for quite awhile.

Thankfully I don't have to go to work at 3 am to deal with these anymore.

[backrubman 64800]

Yes you are right about the 2-step authentication, you do have to enable that manually.

Third party computers are a huge risk. Thanks for mentioning that.

 

And thank you for reminding everyone of the importance of this!

 

The Google article was a looong time ago, 2011.

Microsoft was hacked in January 2013, Apple had a top level security breach in their OS in February causing massive panic to every iphone user. Java had a minor crisis too in February. Google has been silent for quite awhile.

 

My bad for not referencing a more recent reference like this one: Google's Gmail Hacked This Weekend? Tips To Beef Up Your Security.

 

Any account (Gmail, hotmail your bank account, you name it) that uses reusable passwords is vulnerable. You are quite right that Gmail is superior in that they filter out most of the malware installing emails that allow hotmail accounts to so easily compromised but only two factor is at all safe -- and it is very convenient in that you hardly know you are using it as your own computer only demands you use a one time password every 30 days (if selected) and you can use other computers out of your control more safely.