Google made Gmail one of the most secure email services.

Tens and hundreds of millions of people use many Google services. This is also true for Gmail, a mail service that almost all its users find very convenient. But, unfortunately, the security of Gmail accounts leaves much to be desired. Of course, in most cases, users themselves are to blame for hacking accounts. Rarely does anyone put up a complicated (really complicated) password containing capital and small letters, symbols, and everything else that is needed to create a strong password.

An ordinary person’s account will protect such a password with a high degree of probability. But what if this is a mail account of a user who is of particular interest to hackers? This may be a politician, a star of show business, an employee of a corporation developing a new technology, a banker. Examples can be given a lot. And despite even two-factor authentication (about which many have heard, but still do not use), accounts sometimes hack. Now Gmail has introduced new features for those users who need special protection.

Those who choose such users are not Gmail, anyone can use the new service. To do this, you need to activate what the company calls "Advanced Protection" . This is a whole set of functions, which greatly complicates the task of a cracker. The main advantage of such a system is the need to have a physical key-token for authorization. That is, two-factor authorization remains, but at the second stage no messages or SMS is used, namely the token, the physical device. It can also be stolen, of course, but the likelihood of this is already significantly lower than “taking away” an SMS or using any other methods of hacking.
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Thus, Gmail is currently one of the most secure email services in the world. "This is what you had to do to give ordinary people the level of mail protection that is usually available only to famous people," said Kenneth White, a network security consultant. "For those people who really need such protection, this is a great option."

It is clear that no one will send the physical key for free. You need to buy it. A device of this kind from Google costs $ 43. There is a less expensive offer. The keys themselves are now available in two types - either a USB device or a wireless device. Both work with digital signatures and cryptography. In the case of two-step authentication, instead of entering codes, the user only needs to press the device button. This, according to experts Gmail, avoids the danger of sending keys to attackers.

In some cases, they create phishing sites whose design is very similar to Gmail. At a certain point, the phishing site requires a password that is used for two-step authentication. If you enter it manually, the cybercriminary gains access to the user account on this email service. But the keys are designed so that they work only with the sites / services for which they are intended.



In general, mail protection, if really important data is stored there is not something worth saving. According to representatives of Gmail, even if a user in one way or another gets the password of a user whose account is protected with a key, the cybercriminal will not be able to crack the account. Without a key, his actions will be blocked.

In addition, if advanced protection is enabled, then only Google applications will be able to access the user's account. This is probably the answer to hackers actions in May. The cybercriminals team has created an application that acts on behalf of Google Docs. And hundreds of thousands of people allowed this application access to their account. Accordingly, accounts have been opened to intruders.

And the last advantage of those who include a new feature. If it is activated, then a key will also be needed to reset or reset the password. If it doesn’t exist, resetting the password becomes extremely difficult. Of course, there is no guarantee that someone will not find a way to deceive and advanced protection. However, to bypass the new methods you need to be very advanced hacker.