OT Gmail ? OT

[philo]

Yesterday I received a notice that someone other than myself had gained
access to my gmail account.

I changed my stupidly weak password at once and saw zero evidence of any
compromise.

I am wondering something though.


The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and while
they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.

Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

[David Catterall]

Post by philo
The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and while
they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.
Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

Yes.

When that happens to me the alert provides a brief, if generalised,
description of the device which was detected.

D.

[jjb]

Post by David Catterall

Post by philo
The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and
while they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.
Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

Yes.
When that happens to me the alert provides a brief, if generalised,
description of the device which was detected.
D.

Yes. I always get these warnings after every use (also from Amazon and
others). My browser has a plugin which lies about my setup ;-)

[philo]

Post by jjb

Post by David Catterall

Post by philo
The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and
while they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.
Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

Yes.
When that happens to me the alert provides a brief, if generalised,
description of the device which was detected.
D.

Yes. I always get these warnings after every use (also from Amazon and
others). My browser has a plugin which lies about my setup ;-)

Thanks folks. Anyway I finally got rid of my stupid , weak password.

[Aragorn]

Post by philo
Yesterday I received a notice that someone other than myself had
gained access to my gmail account.
I changed my stupidly weak password at once and saw zero evidence of
any compromise.
I am wondering something though.
The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and
while they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.
Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

Yes. I get it all the time because of my backup phone, which
periodically connects to my GMail account, even though I've
disabled the polling.

It's an old Samsung Galaxy S2, and because it once was my primary
phone, I had set it up to be able to access my GMail account — which I
only use on my phone anyway.

But those old Android versions were pretty locked down — you cannot
tell them which services not to start at boot. And due to a flaw in
the battery connector, the thing periodically shuts itself off —
the slightest bump will do — and then instantly reboots, starting up all
kinds of junk that I have to manually disable again afterwards in order
not to have it consume any of the limited amount of traffic I have on
that thing — unlike my main phone, which is on a contract, the backup
phone has a prepaid card only.

But so, yes, every time that thing reboots, I get a security alert from
Google that someone was trying to access my GMail account. And the IP
address shows that it was indeed my backup phone.

I'd switch the damn thing to WiFi if I could, but its WiFi antenna
appears to be broken — it's not picking up any of the WiFi networks in
the building anymore, and then it disables itself again. So now I've
simply deleted my email address and my login from that phone.

For that matter, the same thing also happened when I started using this
computer here. On my previous computer, I was using Firefox to log
into my YouTube account, but on this one, I'm using Chromium. Same
thing, a warning, and my IP address hadn't even changed. All that had
changed was that I was now using a different browser.

[philo]

Post by Aragorn

Post by philo
Yesterday I received a notice that someone other than myself had
gained access to my gmail account.
I changed my stupidly weak password at once and saw zero evidence of
any compromise.
I am wondering something though.
The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and
while they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.
Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

Yes. I get it all the time because of my backup phone, which
periodically connects to my GMail account, even though I've
disabled the polling.
It's an old Samsung Galaxy S2, and because it once was my primary
phone, I had set it up to be able to access my GMail account — which I
only use on my phone anyway.
But those old Android versions were pretty locked down — you cannot
tell them which services not to start at boot. And due to a flaw in
the battery connector, the thing periodically shuts itself off —
the slightest bump will do — and then instantly reboots, starting up all
kinds of junk that I have to manually disable again afterwards in order
not to have it consume any of the limited amount of traffic I have on
that thing — unlike my main phone, which is on a contract, the backup
phone has a prepaid card only.
But so, yes, every time that thing reboots, I get a security alert from
Google that someone was trying to access my GMail account. And the IP
address shows that it was indeed my backup phone.
I'd switch the damn thing to WiFi if I could, but its WiFi antenna
appears to be broken — it's not picking up any of the WiFi networks in
the building anymore, and then it disables itself again. So now I've
simply deleted my email address and my login from that phone.
For that matter, the same thing also happened when I started using this
computer here. On my previous computer, I was using Firefox to log
into my YouTube account, but on this one, I'm using Chromium. Same
thing, a warning, and my IP address hadn't even changed. All that had
changed was that I was now using a different browser.

My first cell phone was a Samsung Galaxy Express 3
It was only $75 (USD)

It worker great.

The only reason I upgraded to a LG6 was for more photo storage.


Anyway, I'm glad to find out that I was not likely to have been hacked.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by philo
Yesterday I received a notice that someone other than myself had gained
access to my gmail account.
I changed my stupidly weak password at once and saw zero evidence of any
compromise.
I am wondering something though.
The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and while
they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.
Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

What exactly did the email say?

It may just mean it was you accessing the Gmail account, but from
a different IP address to the one which Gmail remembers.

Gmail may want you to set authentication to OAuth2 in Thunderbird,
and use 2-factor authentication for web browser access to Gmail.


FYI I sometimes get emails saying something like this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New sign-in to your linked account

Your Google Account was just signed in to from a new Windows device.
You're getting this email to make sure that it was you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[philo]

Post by Ralph Fox

Post by philo
Yesterday I received a notice that someone other than myself had gained
access to my gmail account.
I changed my stupidly weak password at once and saw zero evidence of any
compromise.
I am wondering something though.
The day before that I had updated three of my spare computers and while
they were updating, I was using my gmail account on them.
Is it possible the alert was sent because of that?

What exactly did the email say?
It may just mean it was you accessing the Gmail account, but from
a different IP address to the one which Gmail remembers.
Gmail may want you to set authentication to OAuth2 in Thunderbird,
and use 2-factor authentication for web browser access to Gmail.
FYI I sometimes get emails saying something like this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New sign-in to your linked account
Your Google Account was just signed in to from a new Windows device.
You're getting this email to make sure that it was you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have seen that type of warning before but this one was different.

I forgot the exact words but it stated that someone other than myself
had accessed my email.

If they had, there would not have been any sensitive information though.

[Mike Easter]

Post by philo
I forgot the exact words but it stated that someone other than myself
had accessed my email.

What kind of words would those be?

That is, how can gmail know that 'someone other than' yourself has accessed?

That is again; that 'report' sounds bogus. The gmail security report is
about an IP and a system, which I see 'all the time' because I access
from a variety of computers.

I never see 'someone other than yourself' (paraphrasing). The accessing
credentials are yours, not 'someone else'.

[philo]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by philo
I forgot the exact words but it stated that someone other than myself
had accessed my email.

What kind of words would those be?
That is, how can gmail know that 'someone other than' yourself has accessed?
That is again; that 'report' sounds bogus.  The gmail security report is
about an IP and a system, which I see 'all the time' because I access
from a variety of computers.
I never see 'someone other than yourself' (paraphrasing).  The accessing
credentials are yours, not 'someone else'.

Very sorry that I worded it wrong.
Although I deleted the message after I changed my password (from within
the context of my gmail account) It was merely the standard "suspicious
activity" warning

Thank you


I just Googled and it looks like they changed the wording last month, so
I was a bit miffed

https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-debuts-new-alert-for-when-a-hacker-possibly-broke-into-your-account