HOW TO: Recover your Gmail account from a breach in 2023

How to recover your Gmail account from a breach in 2023

In this tutorial, we will review the 3 most important steps you can take to recover your gmail account from a breach. 

What is an email breach?

An email breach occurs when an unauthorized person gains access to your inbox and has the ability to send, read, and delete mail from your account

How did I get breached?

A breach can happen for any number of reasons. Most commonly, users are phished for their passwords with a phony email that claims to be an invoice, or secure documents. The phony email will take you to a fake site which requests you to login, but will never work. The submission collects your username and password data and sends it to a bad actor. 

Other times, you may have used the same password for multiple sites, and another site suffered from a data breach, resulting in your password being leaked on the dark web. 


You can check if your common passwords have been found, and from what breaches using this online tool. We strongly recommend NOT using the same password across sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Streaming services, etc.

How do I secure my account?

We are going to show you three places to look and security features to activate that will lock the bad actor out of your account, and prevent further breaches of your Gmail account. 

1. Reset your Gmail Password

 

  1. From the corner of your Gmail, click the circle and select Manage your Google Account button.

2. Select Security from the left hand menu

3. Select Password from the bottom right side. We will come back to this section from 2-step Verification later

4. The next screen will have you verify your current password. If you have forgot your password, click “Forgot Password” to begin the recovery process.

5. Type in a new complex password which is over 8 characters, and is not similar to the password you previously used.

The new password should not have

  • Your name or last name in it
  • Be the same or similar to your last password 
  • All lowercase / no special characters

The new password should have

  • 8-12 characters at a minimum
  • A special character $%#!@ included
  • A mix of numbers, lowercase, and uppercase letters 

2. Configure 2-Step Verification

6. After you reset your password, which will kick out the bad actor from your mailbox, it is time to prevent this from happening again by turning on a security feature, two factor authentication. Navigate back to Security on the left hand menu and select 2 Step-Verification 

7. Click Get Started to begin 

8. Type your cell phone number on the first line, and select text message

9. Type in the code from the text message and select Next

10. Click on Turn On to activate 2-step Verification

Now that the account is secured, and the bad actor can no longer access your Gmail account, it is time to check for rules that may have been placed on your account as a backdoor in case the bad actor was removed.

Navigate back to Gmail and click the setting wheel, hit “see all settings”

3. Review Gmail Rules and Activity

Now that the account is secured, and the bad actor can no longer access your Gmail account, it is time to check for rules that may have been placed on your account as a backdoor in case the bad actor was removed.

1. Navigate back to Gmail and click the setting wheel, hit See all settings

2. We will want to check Accounts and Import to confirm the user did not add their email as a backdoor. Your settings should look like this for check mail from other accounts. Should you see any unauthorized accounts here, disconnect them.

3. Check Filters and Blocked Addresses, to make sure they did not block email from any legitimate email accounts, or place filters that would automatically send your new emails into trash. Your settings should look like this, unless you have legitimate filters or blocked addresses here.

4. Review the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings to confirm they are not forwarding your mail to their inbox. Your settings should look like this for Forwarding. Should you see any unauthorized accounts, delete them.

5. Now that you have secured your account, there are some places you can check to review what was sent, and potentially reach out to those contacts to warn/or let them know not to click any mail that was sent from you, to them. 

Head to your SENT mailbox and check on the activity for who and what was sent out.

6. Head to your trash folder to review any emails that the bad actor may have been hiding, such as phony invoices or replies from your contacts.

Confused, questions, or unsure if you’ve secured your Gmail account? Reach out to our support team for assistance!

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