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Old 10-25-2011, 10:49 AM
 
8,411 posts, read 7,376,187 times
Reputation: 6406

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I usually access my Gmail account through my IPhone. I've had the same password for about 8 months, Well, I tried to access it this morning and my phone kept saying it was a incorrect password. I didn't think anything of it since it was auto save and I just click the email button to access. I thought maybe something was wrong with my phone. So I logged on to my regular computer and tried my password. It still wasn't working.

Well, I decided to just change my password. When I logged it, at the top there was a red banner that said my account has irregular activity. When I clicked on the banner it said my Gmail was accessed from a computer with a IP address from Thailand for 12 hours. I was shocked. How could this have happened? I have never experience this before and don't know anyone in Thailand, even overseas.

I had a very long password and no one has access to my Gmail. My previous password was long. I changed my password to every account I have to include banking. I signed up for credit alerts as well. I am very nervous as to how someone accessed my gmail for 12 hours from a foreigh country. I also have Mcfee Security System on every computer I have.

Is it possible it is something like Spyware or something else?
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Old 10-25-2011, 11:36 AM
 
41,815 posts, read 50,792,097 times
Reputation: 17862
There is lot of ways even if your password id long and complex, for example do you use the same password multiple sites? What happens is maybe you might have a site that doesn't really need tight security but still has login. The password stored in a database on the sites server is not exncrypted or uses low level encryption. A hacker gains access to the database for this site and now has your email address and password you have used. They can then try and login with the password, since so many people use same password they get access to a lot of accounts.
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Old 10-25-2011, 01:26 PM
 
8,411 posts, read 7,376,187 times
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No, I don't use the same password. But isn't Gmail encrypted? How can I prevent this from happening in the future? I have Mcfee Security Center which has internet safety.

I wonder why someone would be in my email for 12 hours. Is there anyway to contact Google about my mail?
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Old 10-25-2011, 06:39 PM
 
41,815 posts, read 50,792,097 times
Reputation: 17862
If you're using different passwords on different sites what I discussed above does not apply to you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Singlelady10 View Post
But isn't Gmail encrypted?
What you're thinking about is the SSL encryption which provides a secure connection between your computer and Gmail's server. What I discussed above pertains to how that information is handled on the backend once it arrives at the server. I couldn't tell you how Gmail handles it but I'd imagine any passwords they are storing on their servers are encrypted.

For the benefit of others let me explain again, you sign up at example.com which in this scenario is not a very security conscious site. When example.com stores your password they store it as plain text. Someone hacks into example.com's server and obtains these passwords and email address associated with them. What they can do now is try and use them and will be successful with a lot of them since so many people would have used the same password on example.com that they have used for their Gmail account.

What happens at a site that is security conscious is they will encrypt the password where the password itself is the key. You need to know the password to decrypt it, that's why if you ever lose a password they simply can't send it to you because they don't know what is.
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Old 10-26-2011, 10:35 AM
 
28,803 posts, read 47,498,749 times
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Singlelady10, have you received complaints from your email contacts about spam coming to them from your account? That is one of the things that will happen if your account is hijacked.
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Old 10-26-2011, 12:53 PM
 
8,411 posts, read 7,376,187 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tek_Freek View Post
Singlelady10, have you received complaints from your email contacts about spam coming to them from your account? That is one of the things that will happen if your account is hijacked.
No, not at all. Could it have been hacked while I was online? What good is Mcfee Security? It says it has internet protection. I check for updates every 3 days. Do I have to worry about my whole computer now?
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Old 10-27-2011, 09:50 AM
 
713 posts, read 3,431,927 times
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Antiviruses do not protect your accounts off your computer. They will just stop you from getting infected from a virus and help stop someone from hacking your computer. I also got access but from China and the only thing that came out of it was that I now receive a lot of spam for Viagra and other medical products. Unless you have critical information on your email account (such as bank notes with account info, credit card notes, emails from sites you are registered with that have your account info on them) then you shouldn't worry. Depending on how difficult your password is, then the attacker might of just got lucky and quest it, since you don't use the same password on different sites.
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Old 10-27-2011, 10:12 PM
 
8,411 posts, read 7,376,187 times
Reputation: 6406
Thanks, I have bank statements on my computer though.
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