Sunday, December 2, 2012

Detect Suspicious Gmail Account Activity


If you are suspicious that someone else might be using your Gmail account, Gmail provides an interface which allows you to cross check and validate the same. This feature allows you to track all the sessions currently active for your gmail account as well as history of all the logins made by you, alongwith the IP address and location  (country / city mapping) alongwith the type of device (Browser/Mobile etc.). This feature also allows you to remotely logout any other active session.

Gmail has now enhanced the feature and also added a warning system into it. Below is an update to the feature
This information is still at the bottom of your inbox. Now, if it looks like something unusual is going on with your account, we’ll also alert you by posting a warning message saying, “Warning: We believe your account was last accessed from…” along with the geographic region that we can best associate with the access.
To determine when to display this message, our automated system matches the relevant IP address, logged per the Gmail privacy policy, to a broad geographical location. While we don’t have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed, a login appearing to come from one country and occurring a few hours after a login from another country may trigger an alert.
So basically what the new addition to the feature does is, it alerts you if it finds too much variation in the incoming IP address block. This can also happen if you are signing in from a Proxy / VPN located in another country, or signing into your Gmail account from your BlackBerry etc. However, all things constant, if this warning ever appears, it will be in your best interest to change your password.

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