The Fine Print

There’s a lot to be said for reading the fine print.  But, like most people I suspect, I seldom do.

But there’s a fine print that you probably should look at every now and again.  It’s at the bottom of your Gmail box.

I’m talking about the little “Details” link.  Clicking on it will pop up a little window showing you activity on your Gmail account.

It’s great reading if the topic is digital forensic science or just healthy paranoia!

Details are provided about access to your account, how, where, and when.  If you’re accessing email from a variety of locations, you might be surprised with the details.  There might be your home computer, your computer at school, your cell phone, your tablet, ….

What you don’t want to see is access from a location, identified by IP address, where you’re not!

It’s a quick little reminder but so important.  If someone reports that they got an email from you and you just know you didn’t send it, this should be one of the first places you look to see if something has gone wrong.

There’s lots to be reminded of with an exercise like this.  Are you using two-step authentication?  Do you log out when you’re done reading email?  Do you have a secure password?  Do you change your password regularly?  Have you shared your login details with anyone else?