Muse me with Coffee

Hi folks, the topic for this post is security - and how to secure your gmail.

Gmail is the only famous free mailing service that has the HTTPS capability, even after logging in - however, I don't really know why, but it is not enabled by default. How many have you have enabled it?

"What? Why do I need security, I am a normal internet user. I have a firewall, and who the hell is going to check my mails."

Yeah, I guess thats the question one may ask me. So, lets see... I guess many of us have used wireless connections... and unfortunately, most of them are uhm, completely insecure. Any guy who has a minimum knowledge of this issue can trace the packets on the air and know what communication is going on. There are several tools - I myself use the BackTrack kit - and the scary part is most of them are FREE and exteremely easy to use.

So, next time you use your personal mails at a WiFi Hotspot, just know you may not be the only one watching you. Recently I attended a security conference and I got the statistical evidence that about 70% of the WiFi Hotspots and WiFi zones are completely insecure. That took my breath away.

Next, wired connections are just as insecure, if not more. If not more? Well, yeah, thats about an interesting research thats going on about it. I will cover than in detail in another post. Now, lets see how to secure your Gmail - it just takes 3 steps.

Securing your Gmail is quite easy.
1. Login to Gmail first, use https://mail.google.com/mail
2. Next, go to Settings
3. Select Always use https under Browser Connections.
Save the changes, and you are done. Uhm, now if you consider that as a step too, its 4 steps - my bad.

So, now your mails are a little more secure. Enjoy.