GOOGLE users have learned how to secure their hacked accounts before they lose money.
Cybersecurity experts estimate that there are around 2,200 active cyber attacks per day.
And this doesn’t include the billions of phishing attempts carried out via email daily.
Because of this, Google has equipped its Chrome browser and Gmail suite with several tools that can help protect users.
These tools are especially helpful to users who believe their accounts may have been hacked or compromised.
“If you notice unfamiliar activity on your Google Account, Gmail, or other Google products, someone else might be using it without your permission,” Google writes on a support page.
To help users with this, Google outlined a number of steps you can take to review suspicious activity and secure your account.
HOW TO SECURE YOUR HACKED ACCOUNT
First, log in to your Google account; if you can’t log in it might be because the hacker changed your account info.
Go to the account recovery page, and answer the questions as best you can.
Next up is to review your account activity. To do that, go to your Google Account > on the left navigation panel, select Security.
On the “Recent security events” panel, select Review security events > check for any suspicious activity.
Suspicious activity includes:
- Unfamiliar changes to critical security settings
- Unauthorized financial activity
- Unusual activity notifications
If you spot an activity that didn’t come from you: Select No, it wasn’t me. Then, follow the on-screen instructions.
You will also want to review which devices use your account.
Go to your Google Account > select Security > on the “Your devices” panel, select Manage devices. Check for any devices you don’t recognize.
If you find a device that you don’t recognize, select Don’t recognize a device and then follow the on-screen instructions.
HOW TO SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT FURTHER
You can take more steps to secure your account by turning on two-step verification (2FA).
You can also enable an antivirus to remove harmful software and turn on Safe Browsing mode on Chrome.
Lastly, you can help prevent password theft with Password Alert.
