One of the most annoying situations that can occur to an email user, are. In almost all cases, it’s just a nuisance, but there are certain situations where it can pose a security risk for our information.
The , as usual, They are unsolicited messages sent in a massive way, with the aim of reaching the widest possible diffusion. For the most part, the content of these emails has little or no value, and in certain cases may or other malicious content.
Although Gmail has a default feature that filter SPAM emailsit never hurts to know the risks of these messages and the methods to protect your data, in case one manages to circumvent the Gmail filters. In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about SPAM emails and how to defend yourself against a potential threat.
What are the main privacy and security risks in Gmail that I should be careful of at all costs?
Added to the hassle and time wasted by spam, The content of said email may pose a risk to the privacy and security of the user’s data. malicious software and information theftare just some of the potential threats that users face.
These are the most common attacks that are carried out through SPAM mail:
Identity fraud
Phishing is one of the most common forms of cyberattack, and consists of sending a mass email impersonating a company, personal acquaintance or public figure, in order to guide the target to pages that contain malicious software, or that are designed to steal your information.
To achieve this goal, they would have access to personal information, bank account numbers, web page credentials and any type of information that they can later use against the target, or sell on the black market.
Access to all accounts linked to mail
Through the use of malware, an attacker could access all the content of your Gmail account. This not only means that you will be able to view the information of all your Gmail mail foldersbut will be able to access all the information from Google applications
Among these accounts that could be affected if they are registered to your Gmail are:
In addition to this, it will be possible for the attacker to obtain the information of your accounts affiliated with Gmail on any platform, for example:
- Social networks
- electronic wallets
- Backups
- business accounts
- bank accounts
Gmail Security How secure is Google’s email platform?
Gmail has a very stable and airtight platform, with security features that allow to protect to a great extent the privacy of the users and their emails. Google has introduced, among the native functions of its mail platform, various security measures to prevent users from falling victim to a wide variety of attack attempts.
Among its security features, Gmail has the following measures:
- Notice before replying to an unknown sender: When trying to reply to a message from a sender not included in our contact list, we may see a warning message at the top of the compose window. It will not prevent us from responding, since it merely fulfills the function of keeping the user alert
- Accurate detection of malicious files: Gmail’s AI uses an analysis of the files included in the email compared to those of other spam patterns, thus making it easier to detect malicious attachments that could be included in the message.
- Anticipation of phishing attempts: Although phishing emails vary widely to avoid detection, Gmail recognizes them by studying their content for common phishing email patterns, as well as analyzing links that may lead to websites identified as risky.
Learn step by step how to improve the security of your Gmail account so that no one can access it without your permission
In addition to Gmail’s own security measures, there are several methods to increase the security of your account that can be performed by the userin order to increase the protection of your data.
These steps are simple, can be done from the Gmail settings window, and are applicable to both its mobile applications and the web version:
put a strong password
The first line of defense for your Gmail account is a strong and complete password.. Gmail has certain requirements when creating a password for its service, and if you do not comply with them, your password will not be applicable.
Gmail passwords, at a minimum, must include:
- An uppercase letter.
- A special character.
- Must include a minimum of 12 characters.
- A lowercase letter.
- A number.
As an additional tip, you can use a manager to generate and store strong, secure and unique passwords for your Gmail account, and use Google’s native password manager to store the other passwords for your email-associated accounts. For create a strong password we recommend our .
Activate 2-step verification
Two-step verification enables a second layer of security for your Gmail account, in case your password is ever lost or stolen. Basically, this feature will cause Gmail to request a code that will be sent to your phone each time you want to access your Gmail account.
This simple feature greatly optimizes the security of your data, and to add this second line of protection, just follow these steps:
- Click on the button “Manage your Google account.”
- Enter the section of “Security”.
- Scroll down to the option “Access to Google” and click on “Two Step Verification”.
- Select the team that is affiliated to the account of Gmail.
- Select the phone number to whom the message was ignored. Yes You already have a number registered with Google, this will be used by default.
- Define if you want the code is sent by text message or phone calland press “To accept”.
- Wait for Google to send the code to the phone number. As soon as it arrives, enter it in the corresponding text box.
- Confirm that you want enable two-step verification pressing “Activate”.
Enable Android login
Thanks to the link between android and google appsit is possible to enter our account gmail through a verification that is sent to our phone, through the app Google.
This feature can serve as an additional security layer, or as a replacement for your Gmail password, and is activated as follows:
- Go to the same section of “Security”.
- Find the section “Access to Google”.
- Press the option “Use phone to access” and click “Set up”.
- Enter your password of gmail if it asks you.
- Select a team to use as access, in case of having several, If you only have one device associated with your , this will be the one used to sign in.
- If necessary, define a screen lock for mobileand press “Following”.
- Follow the steps to access through your phone for the first time. Press the button “Following”.
- Unlock your mobile and press “Yes”.
- Confirm that you want to enable phone access by pressing “Activate”.
Remove unnecessary extensions
While extensions are very useful tools in many caseskeeping the browser saturated with unused extensions can represent a risk to the privacy of users, since they can generate vulnerabilities in the browser. Thus, It is necessary to clean from time to time.
If you need to uninstall an unnecessary extension, you can do it through this procedure:
- Enters to browser Chrome.
- Press the three dots in the upper right corner.
- Click on the section “More tools”.
- Select the option “Extensions”.
- Find the extensions you want to uninstall and click “Put off”.
- For confirm the deletionclick on the application again.
We teach you how to improve the privacy of your Gmail account from scratch to protect your personal data as much as possible
Thousands of spam emails are sent daily containing a variety of content. For the most part, it’s just a nuisance. but much of this mail contains malicious files or software. To avoid both the hassle and the problems that spam mail can bring us, We will now give you several actions that you can take to protect your information. and avoid having to deal with spam.
Go for it:
Cancel newsletter subscriptions
gmail includes the function of automatically filter emails that meet the characteristics of spam, so they are automatically sent to the spam folder.
However, if you want to permanently stop receiving emails from any unwanted newsletter, you can unsubscribe from it through a simple process:
- Opens your account Gmail.
- swipe the side menu and slide to the spam folder.
- Choose an email from the unwanted newsletter.
- click in option “Cancel subscription”, which you will see next to the sender’s name.
Thus you will avoid receiving mail from this newsletter. Repeat the process as many times as you see fit with any spam senders you subscribe to. This will considerably reduce the volume of your spam folder.
Set anti-spam filter
Among the security features of Gmail we can find the option to create a custom anti-spam filter directly from the settings window. This function will allow us, in summary, to create a black list of contacts from which we do not want to receive emails.
To activate this function, you just have to enter your Gmail account from the web browser and follow these steps:
- click about icon gear.
- Choose “View all settings.”
- press on the tab “Filters and addresses blocked”.
- click about the option “Create a new filter.”
- Fill in the data of the submitted form. Enter the email addresses you want to filter, the subjects you want to avoid, the words to block. In this last section, we must include the word “spam”.
- Click on “Create filter” and click accept on the two popup windows that will appear.
With this, we can add a new layer of protection that will be added to the native spam filter of the Google service. We can repeat this process as many times as necessary and manage the filters already created in case you want to modify or delete any.
Block user messages
Is about one of the privacy settings plus basic.
From the received email itself we will have the option to block that user, so that it will not be possible to send more emails to your Gmail account:
- Enters in your account Gmail.
- open the message of…
Facebook Comments
Disqus