Always Log In Securely To Gmail
ByAfter hearing and reading all the hoopla regarding Gov. Palin’s email being hacked by a college student, I’m sure many of us have thought about the security of our own web email accounts and the ‘security’ questions we’ve answered to keep our passwords secure.
There are some pretty logical and sensible tips for doing this. Of course, if you have a public presence, you’ll not want to use your true birthdate and other easy-to-find-out-facts on-line.Even if you’re not a ‘celebrity’, it might be wise to pick a fake birthdate and birthplace for many things web-related.
Gmail is the only web-based email provider (I believe), that will allow secure (or https) sign-ins. This is a great benefit for those of us who want to check email while traveling, in a coffee shop, etc. Probably not many of us stop to think that when we’re on our wireless laptops in a coffee shop, and decide to login to our Yahoo, or other web-based email, that there is a chance that our password could be hijacked by someone lurking on the wireless network. Since there is no security on an open network, everything is wide open and those with the know-how can intercept our data.
In addition to offering the https login, Gmail gives us the added security of choosing our own security questions. Take advantage of this feature.
Enabling https in Gmail is a simple click. Login to Gmail and click ‘Settings’. Scroll down to the bottom and click the “Always Use Https” radio button. Save your changes and from now on, wherever you login, your password will be encrypted.
After you do this, you’ll notice the Google mail notifier has stopped working. (The notifier is the mail icon that appears in your system tray when new email comes in.) You can fix this two ways. You can do a manual registry hack, or you can download the Google registry hack that will automatically do this for you. Google conveniently provides an uninstall to the hack, should you later change your mind.
