If you use Gmail or have an Android device, or use any other Google service, you’ll want to check this out. There’s a quick way to do a security check up on your Google account. Like I said, if you use Gmail, an Android phone or tablet, YouTube, or Google Drive and it’s free office suite, or log into Google Chrome to take your favorites and history with your across devices, you’ve got a Google account.
Open your browser and go here: https://myaccount.google.com/security-checkup
You’ll see a Security Checkup page that lists Your devices, Recent security events, Sign-in & Recovery, and Third-Party access.
If Google feels something needs immediate attention, you’ll see an exclamation point next to it.
Let’s start by clicking on Your devices. My alerts show that I don’t have a screenlock on my Galaxy GS8 phone. (Shame on me.) So if any of your Android devices don’t have a lock, expect some grief. It also notes that I haven’t logged into Gmail from a particular device in a long time. I haven’t used this device much recently, but I do plan to use it again.
You can also see which devices are currently logged in to Google. If you see an unknown device, it can mean someone else has accessed your account or that you accidentally stayed logged in when using someone else’s device.
To log out of a device click the three-dot menu icon to the right. If you recognize the device, choose Remove. If you don’t click on Don’t recognize device.
If you don’t recognize the device, you’ll be logged out of everywhere but the device you’re using and given instructions for changing your password.
Next, we’ll click on Recent security events. As with Devices, if Google thinks there’s something that needs immediate attention, there will be an exclamation point next to it.
In my case, it notes that unRoll me was connected to my account. Since this is something that I was aware of and authorized, I’ll click Yes. If it wasn’t authorized, I’d click on No, it wasn’t me to break the connection. I was also aware of the second connection to Drop Box, so I’m good. If I don’t recognize a connection, I’ll be signed out from other devices and advised to change my password.
Tomorrow, in part 2 of this series, we’ll continue our security checkup.