Gmail has new security feature to avoid accounts from being hijacked

Gmail as added a new feature from a security angle. As explained in the Gmail blog that many people receive emails from known addresses asking for help in the form of money. This is obviously a scam but as if someone is a good friend you might some might end up falling prey to such scams. I love Gmail and all kinds of great features that make it great and hence I think you might enjoy reading about a new security feature in Gmail.

How the scam works?

First the email of a person is compromised and email for help in form of money is asked to all contacts of the email account. This makes the email legitimate sometimes as it is sent from a known contact. This might not be a big deal in the money scam but anyone amongst us might fall prey to lets say a attachment sent out like that to spread a virus.

How Gmail plans to fight it?

• Gmail plans to fight this problem by giving us a new feature which alarms us if our acocunt has shown suspicious log in activity.
• As you can see in the image above, there will be a warning like if my account was accessed form some foreign country and with a link to show details and preferences.
• The details included are recent access point information which includes IP addresses. This will be useful as if you some has hacked into your account you can immediately locate it and then change the password. (see image below for what details are included)

• The information highlighted in red is the suspicious information. This can be ignored or acted upon as you see fit. The locations is a broad one like country wise locations so do not expect this message if you use different computers to access Gmail from home and office.

I like this new security tip and makes a lot of sense to have some sort of inbuilt for us to know someone unknown is accessing our account. Do drop in your comments with any more new ideas you have to keep the Gmail account safe.

Link: Gmail Blog