Millions of users across the world always keeps on dumping their important documents, files and sensitive information on cloud storage, and needless to mention that maximum of us bet on Internet giant, Google, as they offers multiple online services with a single account. When it comes to security it doesn’t matter which platform you’re using, be it Gmail, Google Drive or or any other application, you must take precautions to maintain the digital security. So, If you are just dumping your personal stuffs all over web and believes that everything is secured because of big name Google, you’re so wrong!
It is very important that your must know all the steps to keep your Google account safe from any unauthorised access.
We hear almost everyday that millions of people lose important emails and gets their sensitive information leaked out to hackers. This is the reason that we have prepared this full security guide that tells what type of security features is being offered by Google and how we can use them to enjoy Google services without worrying about potential threats.
Note: Here you can do all security checks of your Google Accounts.
Table of Contents
PASSWORD
Passwords are the first line of defense against account hijackers. It is true that if your password is strong enough, it won’t be any easy to crack. So, always keep in your mind that password is the first security layer of your account and you must have to follow some security rules to keep this layer strong enough. Here are some tips for making your passwords strong:
- Use long alpha numeric Passwords. The longer passwords is always hard to guess and it increase chances that hijackers will not crack it easily.
- Never use any personal information as your Google account Password. Many of us use personal information like relative and friends names, birthday date, address or any similar information that anybody can guess easily.
- Don’t use your Google password with any other internet service. Majority of internet users using the same password on different websites leads to getting hacked for the Google account associated with that particular service without any serious efforts.
- Use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. For example: 3G^tyDiOp#2?
- Try using a phrase that only you know. For example, for your email you could start with “My friends Tom and Jasmine send me a funny email once a day” and then use numbers and letters to recreate it. “MfT&Jsmafe1ad” is a password with lots of variations.
- Don’t use the same password for a long time. Keep changing your password at regular interval. While this may sounds insane, but this is the most basic step you can take to protect yourself from being digitally hacked.
2-STEP VERIFICATION
This is the cool security feature offered by Google, which can be used to prevent all types of account hijacking. In 2-step Verification, Google sends a security code to your mobile via SMS and you must need to enter the SMS code to login in your Google account. If your Google account 2 step verification is enabled, then don’t worry about any type of hacking until you are not using your account for any public computer. If you have any sensitive data or information in Google account, the extra step probably makes sense.
CHECK YOUR RECENT ACTIVITY
Google tries to offer best security features for your account and has also added one more security features titled Check your recent activity. You can check your Google account activities on the Security checkup page. It shows full details about your login location and most recent login. To avoid any security mashup, Google created one dedicated page to check all your security needs. The security check page link has already been mentioned at the starting of this guide as note.
CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT PERMISSIONS
In the same security checkup page, you can check the permissions that you have given to access your account information to any third-party service. For example Android Device, Google Chrome and Google Keep. You can check authorization date or remove the application from your account access.
Once you start following all the features that Google offers with utmost care, securing your digital contents spread across Google services is pretty much easy and have less to no chances of getting cracked!
