ISC's Computing Resource Center

Secure your Gmail account

A tool has just been released that makes it easy for someone to steal your Gmail account if the cookie is being sent in clear text. It is recommended that the default setting is changed to enable encryption for the entire session.  This is very easy to do.

After you are logged into Gmail:

1. Look in the top right hand corner and you will see a link that is labeled Settings.
   
   
2. Click that and then you will see:
   
   Browser connection:
   • Always use https
   • Don't always use https
     
     
3. Click Always use https.

You may have to log out and log back in to get the full https session. Setting this parameter will ensure that all Gmail traffic passed from your web browser to the Gmail server is encrypted effectively preventing the theft of the cookie that hackers want these days.