How to stop Gmail hack attacks
Update, Dec. 16, 2024: Following reader requests, this story, originally published Dec. 14, now includes detailed mitigation information regarding how Gmail users can best protect their accounts against each reported threat.
Not all issues regarding Gmail email can be laid at the door of the “hacker” no matter how you define them. Some are just red herrings, truth be told. For example, if emails are not arriving at Gmail inboxes, check your domain authentication protocols to ensure they meet Google’s requirements. However, sad to say, Gmail accounts remain a prime target for attackers of all sorts and understanding the threat is key to getting a grip on mitigating it. Here’s what you need to know about Gmail email account attacks and how to stop them as we head into 2025.
Link Hovering Gmail Attacks
Don’t click those links is a staple security protection offered by professionals advising users against age-old phishing tactics. The reason being that if you hover over a link before clicking it, then the genuine malicious destination URL will appear rather than the fake one the attacker is trying to trick you with. Here’s the problem: Gmail hackers have worked out how to bypass this link protection by spoofing the link hover text. This is actually much easier than you might like to imagine as it takes no great coding skills, just an understanding of HTML—the basic language of the web. A little bit of HTML tweaking, no Javascript required, is all that is needed to alter the mouseover text label to anything you want it to be, including a faked website address.
10-Second Gmail Hack Attacks
The 10-second Gmail hack attack threat is actually way more common than you might think. This is mainly because, like so many hack attacks, it seeks to advantage of you during a moment of weakness. Let me explain by way of a little experiment I carried out by posting a message asking for help with being locked out of my Gmail account on X, although it could might as well have been to any online forum as the response would be the same. Lots of replies offering help, starting within 10 seconds of posting, and none of them at all helpful; just the opposite, in fact. Email security bots opened the “contact someone@somewhere to get your account access back” floodgates. The common denominator here is that they will all use the situation to relieve you of money for doing nothing or exploit your email security anxiety to get you to hand over your account credentials.
AI-Generated Gmail Account Takeover Attacks
AI deepfakes are increasingly being used as part, a primary part, of Gmail account takeover attacks. Check out my viral story, viewed by more than 2 million people so far, recounting one such attack against a security consultant. The super realistic AI scam call sought to persuade the user that his Gmail account was under attack and someone was trying to change his account credentials. If a security consultant can almost get caught by this tactic, so can you. The TL;DR account is that a notification requesting a Google account recovery approval was received, followed by a missed phone call. Seven days later another such notification and call were made, but this time the telephone was answered. A convincing conversation from what appeared to be a genuine Google number and real support technician followed. But it was all being generated by generative AI.
Gmail 2FA Bypass Attacks
The theft of cookies from your browser, specifically session cookies, enables hackers to bypass your 2FA protections effectively. Owning a cookie that validates a user session after the 2FA step has already been completed gives the attacker complete control over that session—complete control to go and change your Gmail recovery options, 2FA, everything.
Gmail Threat Mitigation—Advice For Every Reader
My thanks go to a .com reader who, while thanking me for writing “an article that summarized the many desperate bits of information I had seen recently about attacks on Gmail,” was disappointed that there was not more information regarding “what I should, and should not do in relation to each of the issues” raised within for the average reader. I’m always happy to oblige, so let’s take a closer look at the mitigations that can help all Gmail users stay safe from the kind of threats previously mentioned.
Link Hovering Gmail Attack Mitigation
The primary mitigation would be to not use a web browser to read your Gmail but rather the desktop or smartphone app of your choice as these don’t appear to suffer from the same issue. The reason being that the web browser clients, such as Google Chrome for example, display the real URL on a link hover at the bottom of the screen whereas the edited mouseover text appears right next to the link that you are hovering on. If you have no choice but to use a web client for Gmail then get into the habit of always looking toward the bottom of the screen to double-check the authenticity of any link you are hovering. “Gmail blocks more than 99.9% of spam, phishing attempts, and malware from reaching you,” a Google spokesperson said, “As part of our AI-based protections, Gmail takes into account link obfuscation methods when classifying messages. Additionally, Gmail automatically scans attachments in sent and received messages for viruses.
10-Second Gmail Hack Attack Mitigation
These threats are, essentially, nothing but opportunistic phishing attacks designed to prey on a moment of understandable weakness. The mitigation is as simple as it is hard to actually follow given the pressures people are under at the time of a Gmail account lockout: never ask ”a hacker” for help getting back into your account. Only ever turn to Google itself for advice in getting your account access back, which you can do safely by starting here. If you find yourself in such a situation, do these three things and in the following order:
- Take a deep breath, count to 20, drink a glass of water.
- Head straight to the official Google support pages as linked to above.
- Follow the instructions given by Google, to the letter and in the order stated.
I would also recommend that you bookmark this article or at least copy and paste the above steps and keep them somewhere safe, not in your Gmail inbox, or you wouldn’t be able to access the advice in an emergency.
AI-Generated Gmail Account Takeover Attack Mitigation
Or, put another way, Gmail phishing mitigation. No matter how advanced the threat becomes, it remains, at heart, a con job and nothing more. Remember this, and don’t get carried away in the complexity of the attack but rather react to the simple facts being presented. It’s easier said than done, sure, but it is the best threat mitigation. Paul Walsh, CEO at MetaCert, co-founded the W3C Mobile Web Initiative in 2004, tasked with refining Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of One Web. Talking in terms of unusual or suspicious links, unexpected or suspicious attachments, grammatical and spelling errors in text, and so on, as red flags when it comes to recognizing a phishing attack is not only erroneous in 2024 but positively harmful, according to Walsh. “None of that is true,” Walsh said. “Telling people to look for spelling mistakes is from the 2000s and is now counterproductive—people trust messages that are well written—here we are again ‘unusual’ senders and ‘suspicious’ whatever.” Stay calm if you are approached by someone claiming to be from Google support; they won’t phone you and so no harm will come to you if you hang up. Check your Gmail activity to see what, if any, devices other than your own have been using the account.
Gmail 2FA Bypass Attack Mitigation
“Google research has shown that security keys provide a stronger protection against automated bots, bulk phishing attacks, and targeted attacks than SMS, app-based one-time passwords, and other forms of traditional two-factor authentication,” a Google spokesperson said. I’d recommend switching to a Google passkey to access your Gmail account for this very reason. As the majority of such attacks begin with phishing, following the previous advice is also recommended. Finally, I would suggest that all Gmail users take advantage of the Google Security Check-Up tool that provides an actionable analysis of the current security posture of the account holder and is a simple way to ensure that you have threat-prevention basics in place, ditto signing up for Google’s Advanced Protection Program to add security layers to your Gmail account.
