Is Gmail secure? How can you make it more secure?

Protecting vital information is an essential issue that organizations and all different people care about and try to comply with all the existing points in the field of protection.

Now imagine that you care about the safety of your system and try to prevent various hackers from accessing your information. Still, you do not care  about the security of your Gmail, so eventually hackers will read all your messages, in this case, do you think that your security maintained?

Suppose you are concerned about the safety of your information and do not want anyone to enter your Gmail and read your messages without your permission. In that case, you should improve the safety of your Gmail account and protect your data against various hackers.

The main reason you should read this article is that you are using Gmail to send files that you have worked on them so hard, and you do not want hackers to interfere in your work, so you need to raise your awareness in this regard.

In addition to Gmail, other items are used to transfer information, and you must pay attention to the security and privacy of your data in all of them.

Is Gmail secure?

As you know, hackers infiltrate the most secure programs and steal information from them, so we cannot say that Gmail is entirely secure, but we must say that its  developers give great importance to the high safety of your information.

One of the best times for hackers to gain access to the information they need is during data transmissions, when they launch an attack, but Gmail uses TLS to prevent attackers from reaching their targets.

TLS stands for Transport layer security. Simply put, it is an encryption protocol that provides a very high level of protection while communicating over a computer network, with the help of which  Gmail can have a strong layer of deposit to protect information.

It should also be noted that all your data at rest is secured with industry-standard 128-bit encryption.

However, there were various concerns that your email provider might read your emails without your permission in the past. Still, after a while, Google stopped doing this to protect data security.

Shortly after, Google stopped scanning various users' information, and it resumed work in another way.

This time, Google gave access to several people to read user information, but after users complained, Google said that they used this information only to train their AIs.

Given all this, it can be understood that if you need high security and do not want any person or robot to have access to your data, you should increase your account security. In this article, there are several ways to  increase account security.

Ways to increase account security:

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-Encrypt Gmail to secure your emails:

As we said before, Google encrypts all emails. Still, if hackers want to access this information, it is necessary for us to prevent the theft of sensitive information by performing various strong encryption measures.

You can do several things to add another layer of encryption to all the information in your account . For example, you can use third-party plugins.

You can also  use S / MIME encryption, which provides a very high level of security for your data.

To do this, there are various third-party plugins, among which we can mention Flowcrypt, SecureMail, Mailvelope, each of which can provide you with excellent security.

1.SecureMail:

In this case, you need to send the password you set to the recipient of your message.

You know that you have to send this password through other communication channels like  Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

2. Flowcrypt:

One of the plugins available to enhance account information security is this one that encrypts all messages with PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy.

For the recipient of your message to unlock your email, you need to share the password you have set for this topic.

3. Mailvelope:

Another third-party plugin available is this one that is a little harder to work with than the plugins we have mentioned earlier.

-Take your password choices seriously:

As you know, one of the most critical issues in increasing the security of all applications,  social networks, Gmail, and other things, is choosing a strong password.

Hackers often implement their goals by breaking passwords, so you should never use weak passwords for your accounts.

It is widespread among different users to use a weak password, not even for one account, but the same password for all budgets.

Finally, suppose you want to increase the security of your Gmail. In that case, you must use strong passwords that must have at least eight characters and a combination of letters, numbers, symbols as well as other items so that the hacker cannot guess it easily.

It should be noted that you must change your password periodically so that if the hacker has been able to access your account password by changing your password, he/she will not be able to access your information for a long time.

-Use two-factor authentication:

One of the most critical issues in  increasing account security is using two-step authentication. If enabled, in addition to entering your password to be logged in to your account, you should also enter the code sent to your phone.

Entering the sent code will significantly increase your account's security, and the hackers won't be able to achieve their malicious goals just by having your password.

-Take your system update seriously:

As you know, the security of the information in your account is maintained when you care about the security of your device and follow the security tips in that regard and the protection of your Gmail.

You should take this issue seriously. Suppose their developers release a new version of different programs. In that case, you should update them immediately because the developers try to fix the bugs in the previous version to release a better understanding of their programs.

Simply put, different hackers, like black hat hackers, use the same security holes to access Gmail information and information on various social networks, such as  Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and more.

-Raise your awareness of phishing attacks:

Detecting these attacks by you or various tools can have a massive impact on increasing the security of your Gmail.

Phishing attacks are made in combination with social engineering. The hackers try to introduce themselves as users' friends to gain access to the desired information in a friendly way.

In most of these emails, there are infected links that eventually give hackers the opportunity of stealing your information.

Regarding phishing, you have to note that if you open suspicious messages, you should never click on the links in the email and do not comply with the sender's requests.

To raise your awareness in this regard, you need to visit sites that inform you of the latest phishing attacks and their key identifiers regularly to be fully acquainted with the latest phishing attacks and detect hackers as soon as possible.

As you can see in other articles on our site, one of the things that can help you stand against this type of attack is the use of an email gateway, an email server that protects users' information.

Using a data security platform can help you identify most phishing emails, and finally, if they are promptly detected, you can significantly maintain security.

-Check your account activity regularly:

Another thing that can help you increase the security of your Gmail is to monitor everything that happens in it and read the messages that are sent to you by Google carefully because they may contain a text which indicates that another device is using your account, several tools can help you investigate suspicious items.

-Don't be connected to public WiFi:

Another thing to keep in mind is to avoid being connected to WiFi in public places and never check your Gmail in such situations.

But sometimes, you want to check an essential message in your account , and you need to be connected to public WiFi, in which case you should use a strong and convenient VPN to protect your data.

Using a VPN in such a situation will cause your traffic to be sent through an encrypted route. As a result, the hacker won't track the traffic easily.

In this section, we will teach you how to send secure emails.

What are the security ways to send email?

All the points we have mentioned so far can only provide you with some security, and none of them can provide you with a 100% secure system.

For example, the various third-party plugins that we have presented to you are not user-friendly because they have additional steps in sending email to the user. Another important point is that the recipient must also have a third-party plugin to unlock passwords.

In general, to send a secure email, you should look for a secure email provider with various features such as encryption, encryption of your messages, and other things that we will discuss the features of this provider.

-end-to-end encryption:

Having this feature means that the message you are writing is encrypted and can only be decrypted by the recipient, which is very important, as discussed in the previous sections of this article.

-Ability to decrypt the message by the recipient easily:

As we have mentioned in the case of third-party plugins, the recipients of the message need to install the plugin which is used by the sender to decrypt the message, which makes the users unsatisfied.

With this in mind, you should use Email providers to keep your messages encrypted even if you send them to someone who uses another email service provider.

-Ability to encrypt attachments:

In addition to  encrypting messages, it is necessary to be able to encrypt attachments so that they won't be used by hackers.

In addition to these features, there are other points that you should pay attention to while choosing a secure email provider, which we have mentioned some of the most important features to you.

But in order to make you more familiar with this topic, here are some of the most secure email providers to use.

Some of the most secure email providers:

As you know, most secure email service providers have lots of features, so that you may be confused while choosing to analyze one of them. As a result, we have listed some of the safest ones in the following.

It is possible for you to use free or paid providers, all of which depend on your choice.

-Tutanota:

Tutanota is a secure email service based in Germany. The developers of this service have made every effort to provide a high level of security for their users' information. The important point that should be mentioned is that it is very user-friendly, and the sender, as well as receiver users, can use it with high security.

This service is very popular because we can use it in different operating systems (In Slovak:  operačné systémy  ) such as iOS and Android, it has a lot of memory to store information, it is an Open-source provider, IP address will be deleted automatically, it has very strong encryption on the whole PO Box and so on.

As you know, in addition to the positive points that every service provider has, there are also negative points that the user should consider while choosing. The most important negative point in this regard is that it does not support IMAP.

-CounterMail:

Another popular email service provider that provides high security for users is  CounterMail, which is based in Sweden.

Reasons for its popularity include IP address storage, password management using Safebox, IMAP support, and very strong encryption of all emails and attachments.

As you can see, the positive thing about this provider compared to Tutanota is that it supports IMAP.

The downside to CounterMail is its high price, which has led us to call it the most expensive provider.

-Runbox:

If we want to mention another case of the most secure service providers, we have to mention Runbox, which is based in Norway.

A positive point in this regard, which has attracted the attention of various users, is their use of renewable energy (hydroelectric power plants).

Users also have to pay to use this item, which can lead to fewer users using it.

-Mailfence:

This is another provider which is called Mailfence, which  provides a very high level of security  for its users and is based in Belgium.

The positive features of this case include the support of two-step authentication, the possibility of the digital email signature, and many other things that have all made Mailfence popular.

The downside of it is the limited online storage space if it is used for free. In addition, encrypted emails can only be sent to Mailfence or OpenPGP users.

-Hushmail:

Hushmail is another provider based in Vancouver, Canada, that provides a high level of security.

The positive features of it include support for IMAP and POP, having a spam filter, the ability to import contacts using a CSV file, and so on.

Among the negative points, we can mention that if you want to use its free accounts, it only gives you a little space.

-StartMail:

Another  highly secure email service is StartMail, based in the Netherlands.

The positive features of this email service include the ability to use unlimited one-time email addresses, support for IMAP and SMTP, support for two-factor authentication, and more.

The negative feature that exists in relation to this case is that given regulatory laws passed in the Netherlands may cause future privacy issues.

-Disroot:

Disroot is another provider of email services in which the developers have done their best to provide a very high level of security for their users' information.

This is based in the Netherlands, which provides the highest possible level of privacy for its users.

The positive features of this case include IMAP support, user-friendliness, having a 2 GB mailbox for free and other things.

-FastMail:

Another  high-security provider is called FastMail, an Australian-based private mail service.

The positive features of this case include user-friendliness, IMAP support. Each of the features can attract many users.

If you want to use this service, we have to say that there is no free plan in it so that you have to pay to use it.

-Protonmail:

ProtonMail is another highly secure provider based in Switzerland.

This case has many positive features, among which we can mention, end-to-end encryption, having a lot of storage for users without the need for payment, construction with zero access, having two-factor authentication, and other features, all of which add to the popularity of this item.

Regarding the negative feature of this case, we can point out that the premium version is expensive.

-Mailbox:

Mailbox is another high service provider based in Berlin, Germany. It should be noted that it is powered by green energy.

This case also has many positive features, among which we can mention user-friendliness, having many useful plugins.

The downside to Mailbox is that it is a bit expensive, and users have to pay a lot to use it.

-Poster:

A poster is another high-security provider of security in Germany.

The positive features of this item include IP address deletion, daily data backup, attachment encryption, anonymous payment support, open-source. It is also very affordable.

A negative feature of this case is the lack of a spam folder, which may be annoying.

Last word:

In general, security is a very important issue, and users do their best to provide high security for their information. In  this article, we discussed the issue of Gmail security  and finally realized that Gmail cannot provide 100% security of information.

However, we have told you all the tips you need to make your Gmail more secure, among which we can mention that you can choose the right password, raise awareness about hacking attacks such as phishing, use two-factor authentication, update the operating system, and other things that we have fully explained above.

Of course, we tried to introduce you to other email service providers that provide a very high level of security for their users so that you can make your choice by observing their positive and negative features.

As you have read in this article, all of the above items have different features that you as a user should choose from them according to your purpose.