Gmail’s new feature – Suspicious activity alerts
April 16, 2010 Computer Safety Tip
Ever wondered just how safe your Gmail account is? Ever thought about the ins and outs of your data, and whether or 
not your account ahs been phished or compromised?
Well – Gmail has obviously given this much thought, and accordingly have just launched their latest feature: an alert to suspicious activity on all Gmail accounts.
With the world being how it is today, with malware creators and hackers running rampant in the world of online, it is imperative to know who is accessing your information, why and when – as information is power after all.
This latest innovation from Gmail alerts the particular account user when the system has made a detection of suspicious activity – which may or may not indicate that the particular account in question has been compromise d- or not – either way the user will be able to investigate the activity and gage for themselves whether the account was infiltrated dubiously or not?
Already in place, which many a Gmail account user may not be aware of, is the fact that Gmail displays information at the bottom of the inbox – showing at all times the time of last activity on the account – when it took place, and whether the account is still active in another location or not.
However, as is mentioned by Will Cathcart (a Gmail product manager) – many Gmail account users are simply unaware of this feature- which is why Gmail has opted to initiate this latest venture – where the alert displayed comes in the form of a big banner, stating: “warning, your account has been accessed from…” = and then it goes on to divulge where and when the Gmail account in question was accessed, the geographic location, etc.
The alert will pop up as soon as the account is accessed unusually, as is mentioned by Cathcart: “For example, if you always log in from the same country and all of a sudden there is a log in from halfway around the world that is suspicious. Or, if the system detects that one particular IP address is accessing numerous accounts and changing passwords for them, which would trigger warnings for affected accounts.”
The great thing about this nifty new Gmail feature is that once the banner is clicked on by the Gmail user, they are directed to a details link, and it is here where all the information is stored and given to the Gmail account user in question.
Information given out at this point are various data about access points, browser’s utilized, IP Addresses’ as well as date and time of various log ins and log outs. The next step is that the user is then able to change their privacy settings, along with passwords – making it that much more difficult to hack into a Gmail account from here on out.
All in all – I would say Gmail is pretty jacked up – and seems to be catering to its clients needs! Big ups!
Word to the wise!
