Simple Way to Check Whether Your Gmail Account Has Been Hack or Not

There are two of my favorite site in my google reader that their domain name has been stolen, MakeUseOf.com and David Airey. All of the incident have two things in commons, they both use Gmail as their web mail to store valuable information and use Goddady as their Registrar.

I dont want to discuss about Godaddy but i would like to describe about Gmail, because by far Gmail to me is the best web mail, and i’d like to share tips to check whether you account has been hack or not.

One of the common method to know whether your gmail account has been compromised by cracker (Person who use hacking to do evil things) is by checking the “Filters” and the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” in the setting page of your Gmail. This is just one way to check whether your gmail has been compromised or not, i don’t know other method.

Here is the step by step with the screenshot:

1. Click on “Settings” on the right above corner of your gmail



here are a closer one, click on “Settings”



2. Then click on “Filters” tab



If u never use Filters tab before then there should be no list in it, but if you have use it, check the filters and double check to make sure you dont forward it to unidentified email.



If u found a list on the filters that u dont know, delete it right away.

3. Last Check the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” Tab

From Web IV

if u never use any of these feature or even understand it, just disabled it all, To disable it set it in to
Forwarding: Disable
POP Download: 1. Status: POP is disabled
IMAP Access:1. Status: IMAP is disabled

Capiche? u could leave a comment to ask more.

OMG, There are unauthorized changes that i didn’t know?!
(like adding filter or POP setting)!!

First delete it right away and change the gmail password.
If u ever store password about others critical site on your gmail account, for god sake change it quickly.

Make your password really strong, u could check how strong your password in Microsoft Password checker and read about Strong passwords: How to create and use them(Microsoft) too. Note: if u still not confident using Gmail, u could always use Yahoo or personal email using your domain name.

To go depth in to the process of Gmail hijacking, u could read in detail at GNUCITIZEN site in Google GMail E-mail Hijack Technique

Update:
Gmail also keeps a list of the last few IPs that have logged in at the bottom of the page. Much easier to keep track of * From: Nuke It dot Org

Here are the screenshot to see the IP log

Click on the “Details” to see the IP log for the last IP on 5-12 hours

Update:
Just found an interesting new post from Gnucitizen and others about Gmail Exploit

• Gmail Security Flaw
• Gmail Exploit May Aid Domain Hijacking
• And Gmail Security Flaw Proof of Concept

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