In today’s internet-enabled world, a significant portion of the population communicates via email in some way or the other, and it has become an integral part of the everyday live scenario.
Features such as quick, portable, versatile means of transporting electronic information to a flexible and handy tool for communication; emails are vital not only in our daily life but more profoundly used for business purposes.
When we think about email, the first word that comes to our mind is Gmail. Gmail is considered as one of the top used email services with more than 1.5 billion users mainly due to its efficient email management, maximum security through effective spam filtrations, plenty of storage space, free POP and IMAP, advanced searches, offline access, third party login applications, Maps, Calendar and so much more.
Gmail is easily accessible on any desktop and mobile platform and offers a wealth of features and customizations that make Gmail on top of its game.
Even though we use Gmail so freely, Gmail stores most of our confidential records, bank statements and important mails. It is vital to ensure that our data within emails are protected and remains confidential otherwise can do some severe damage, if taken lightly.
For security concerns or privacy issues, it is recommended to keep changing your Gmail account passwords to prevent hackers from stealing essential data and messages. We will provide all the guidelines on why is it necessary to change your Password and How to change Password on Gmail account on MAC? Let’s start.
Why changing the Gmail password is essential?
With the increasing threat of hacking, spams, identity theft, cyber and social attacks; email security has become a priority. Hackers targets organizations and individuals via emails by tricking users into giving up sensitive information, approve fake invoices, steal important data infecting the communication network.
One way that hackers can try to hijack an email account without the user’s knowledge is by only guessing the Password or through stolen passwords. Often attackers may send phishing emails using a legitimate company address to steal private information and data. Weak or easy to guess Password are a significant source of hijacked accounts; thus, many of these threats can be avoided by employing necessary email protection starting with changing the Password often.
Benefits of changing your Gmail account password regularly
1. Protect important information
Emails usually contain confidential information such as credit card number, banking account details, as well as other personal information. Hackers can figure out ways to get access to your login credentials and steal identity without much difficulty, thus changing your Password over 120 days will prevent leakage of such vital information.
2. Limit breaches to multiple accounts
Reusing the same Password for all your accounts increases the risk of funds being hacked. Change your Gmail account password to something unique and set different Password for each of your funds. In this way, it will limit the chances of breaching your Gmail accounts as well as other charges connected with your Gmail accounts such as YouTube, Google Drive, Google photos and other apps.
3. Prevents frequent access
By changing your Password frequently will prevent the hacker from getting constant access to your account as they may try to log in more than once over some time.
4. Prevents the use of saved passwords
Often people save their Gmail passwords on multiple devices, and this can be risky. In case they lose or change the device, there is a possibility that someone may gain access to saved accounts thus changing the Password will prevent that, and even if someone finds an old or kept Password, it will no longer be of any use.
5. Prevent access by keystroke loggers
A keystroke logger means a surveillance technology who record keystrokes as a way of stealing login credentials. Changing your passwords regularly will limit the access obtained from such methods and is useful for any given length of time.
How to Change Password On Gmail Account On Mac?
Changing your Gmail password on the Mac laptop can be done in 2 ways.
Option 1: Using Apple’s free Mail application
Step 1: Launch the Mail on your Mac.
Step 2: Tap on the Mail from the Mail menu and click on Preferences.
Step 3: Next, click on the Accounts tab. On the left side of the Account preference windows, a list of all your email accounts will appear.
Step 4: Select the specific email account, in this case your Gmail account
Step 5: Click on the Password text field, this will select the old Password. Remove the old Password and enter in your new Password. Once done, click on the close button.
Option 2: Access Gmail on Mac via Gmail.com
Step 1: Open Gmail.com
Step 2: Tap on the Settings icon at the top right corner of the Gmail window.
Step 3: On the drop- down menu, click on the Settings option.
Step 4: In the settings tab, click on Accounts and Import section.
Step 5: Click on the Change Account Settings and then select Change Password.
Step 6: Type in your existing Password in the text box, enter next.
Step 7: Enter your new Password and click on change password button to save the changes.
How to protect your Gmail account?
Many of threats can be avoided by simply following basic email protection rules starting with changing the Password often. Here are some ways to protect your Gmail account
● Changing your Gmail password periodically is a great way to reduce the risk of exposure and avoiding cyber security attacks.
● To prevent email account hijacking, incorporate stronger passwords rules such as minimum passwords lengths, a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, making use of special characters.
● You can prevent someone from hacking into your Gmail account by setting a recovery phone number or email when signing up for Gmail. This will also give an alert notification whenever anyone logs into your primary Gmail account from another device.
● Keep track of all devices connected with your Gmail account and disconnect from them when not using them. If any unknown device is connected to your Gmail account, then you will be aware if your account is being used by anyone else.
● A two factor authentication is a great way to boost security. Either use Password or add a second form of verification to log in to your Gmail account.
● Any app that can directly access to your Gmail account is an easy way for hackers or third party app to access your data, thus a safer option is to remove access apps that have access. To prevent that, go to Check your account permissions which will give a list of apps and devices connected to your Gmail account and click on the remove button that you no longer need.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. How to change Gmail Password on iPhone or iPad?
Open the Gmail app on your device. Tap on Menu, Settings, Account and then Manage Your Google Account. Next tap on Personal Info, you will find the profile section. Click on Password and type in your new Password, once done click on Change Password to save changes.
2. What happens after you change your Gmail Password on Mac?
Once you change or reset your password, you will be signed out from your account except all the devices, third-party apps and any other accounts that you signed in using your Gmail account.
