at least ONE company taking such simple yet powerful steps towards account theft.
Now if companies like Blizzard could learn from this...
Gmail to alert users to suspicious activity
Summary
Google launched a new feature in Gmail that will alert users when the system detects suspicious activity that might indicate the account has been compromised.
Topics
Google launched a new feature in Gmail on Wednesday that will alert users when the system detects suspicious activity that might indicate the account has been compromised.
Gmail already displays information at the bottom of the in-box showing the time of the last activity on the account and whether it's still open in another location. But people often don't think to check that information, Will Cathcart, a Gmail product manager, said in an interview on Wednesday.
So Google is taking the extra step of displaying a warning to users in the form of a big banner that says "warning your acct was accessed from..." and which specifies a geographic region where the account was accessed when unusual activity was detected.
"For example, if you always log in from the same country and all of a sudden there is a log in from halfway around the world" that is suspicious, Cathcart said. Or, if the system detects that one particular IP address is accessing numerous accounts and changing passwords for them, that would trigger warnings for affected accounts, he said.
For more on this story, read Gmail to alert users to suspicious activity on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 2 Talkback(s)
-
Larsix2nd Apr 2010 -
RE: Gmail to alert users to suspicious activity
I've been using the account login detail view in gmail when i find out that a pc which I had used to check my gmail was infected with a keylogger virus etc. So far, nothing malicious, but I am glad that this feature has been enhanced to be more user-info-friendly. This is one of the main reasons why I like Gmail.
wats6795th Apr 2010
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Facebook Activity
