How to Prevent Gmail Emails from Cyber Phishing During COVID 19

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought upon everyone the problems that we never expected. People worldwide are facing severe crises and are trying to cope up with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cyber Phishing in Gmail during COVID-19

An unexpected problem that has been rising in the middle of this pandemic is increasing cyber phishing attacks. Although, cyber phishing is a common issue faced by users worldwide. It has been exponentially growing during the COVID-19 pandemic that has compelled the users to find ways to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing. According to Google, there were around 18 million malware and phishing emails received by users daily, and more than 240 million spam emails. All of these were notably targeting the COVID-19 pandemic as bait.

The hackers have rapidly increased their malicious activities in the pandemic, making cyber safety during COVID-19 a vital necessity.

Gmail is one of the most widely used email clients that has become prone to such cyber phishing incidents. Till October 2019, around 1.5 billion Gmail users were utilizing the G Suite services in some way or another. It has led to attracting the hackers towards Gmail specifically.

Before starting to talk about how to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing. Let us first see all the questions that we will answer in this blog.

• What is Gmail Cyber Phishing?

• What are the Types of Phishing Attacks?

• What are some Phishing Examples of Gmail?

• How to identify Cyber Phishing in Gmail?

• How do I Stop Gmail Emails from Cyber Phishing?

Now, as we have put together all the questions. Let us start answering all of these.

What is Gmail Cyber Phishing?

Phishing is a kind of cyber attack through which hackers use misguidance and misleading identities to gather the trust of the users. The email phisher’s sole purpose is to collect personal data of the users like account info, card details, etc. It can be done in different ways but is executed by sending an email.

The hackers pretend to be from an original source and use urgency as an arm to make the users fall prey to their malicious emails. To prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing, continue reading this post to understand all the preventive methods.

What are the Types of Phishing Attacks?

Cyber Phishing can be of various types as the hackers try their best to deceive the users into falling into their trap. The following are the different ways through which you can be a victim of cyber phishing.

• Cyber Phishing Emails are made in such a way that you can easily believe them. These emails are delivered by making an exact copy of the original emails. Also, they resemble your genuine contact so that you revert with your personal information.
• Domain Spoofing is a type of cyber phishing in which the hackers impersonate an original organization’s email address. The Gmail user might believe the email phisher and reply with the asked data.
• Voice Phishing, sometimes called vishing, is another type through which you get spam calls. The spam caller may impersonate a real identity and trick you into giving the required information.
• SMS phishing (Smishing) is similar to vishing as this scheme sends text messages that could contain a fake link that would direct to the page that the hackers manage.

What are some Phishing Examples of Gmail?

The first step to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing is to identify all the phishing emails. There are plenty of general phishing emails that have become a regular trial for hackers to gain access. To save yourself from these email phishing, go through some below-mentioned phishing email examples that you can receive on your Gmail ID to make yourself aware.

1. Bank Notice

This email shows you some fake account notifications regarding your bank. They would provide a link in the emails to redirect you to a webpage to fill your account details for verification purposes. Do not fall prey to these emails and contact your bank regarding these emails.

2. Winning Prize

These are the most common type of phishing emails that you receive on your Gmail account. The hackers are so deep into the business that they would even bait you by giving some tiny amount directly to gather your account or credit card details. They often send emails claiming that you have won some big prize, lottery, or competition. Never provide any details to these kinds of emails.

Apart from these, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the hackers have become updated and are using the latest happenings to misguide the users. Gmail users have received phishing emails worldwide specifically related to COVID-19. However, there are measures to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing that have become the need of the hour for every Gmail user.

3. WHO Impersonation

Email phishing have taken use of the COVID-19 pandemic to attack Gmail and other email client users by impersonating big global organizations, the WHO being one of them. They have started asking for donations through emails in the name of WHO and COVID-19. Beware of such emails and always verify the sender’s source before making any donation to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing.

Google during COVID has witnessed a jump in all the cyber phishing cases. However, in India, the cyber phishing incidents on Gmail during COVID-19 have seen the following emails.

4. Related to Arogya Setu Application

The initiative by the Indian Government of the Arogya Setu app to monitor the COVID-19 related services has become the target of the scammers.

5. Targeting Insurance and Health Companies

As among the COVID-19 crisis, several people are looking to buy health insurance and medical services. The hackers have become more prevalent and add malicious links to the emails related to health insurance.

How to Identify Cyber Phishing in Gmail?

You would be confident in detecting phishing emails and malicious links, but some of them are so crafted that you can also get confused. According to experts, there are some warning signs to help us to identify phishing emails. Some of the ways the user can detect and prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing are given below.

1. Through Sender Details

You can detect phishing emails by going through the sender details. Besides, the hackers try to make the sender details seem legitimate; you should always keep in mind some red flags.

You can view the domain name and ask yourself, is this the kind of content you could receive from this sender? Moreover, big organizations do not use free email clients like Gmail and Yahoo, so emails from senders like unicef@gmail could easily be detected as fake.

2. By Subject Lines

Check for misspellings, all capital letters, peculiar characters in the subject lines of suspected emails. There can be some red flags that you could identify even before opening these emails.

3. Links and Attachments

The main aim of the hackers is to apply an intrusive code to the user’s system using malicious and phishing emails. Links and attachments are the best carriers of this code that can easily be opened in the mailbox.

How do I Stop Gmail Emails from Cyber Phishing?

There are various precautions and methods that one should take while dealing with Gmail cyber phishing. The precautions can work once you identify the phishing email, while methods would provide you an added security against these. Go through the precautions and methods to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing during COVID19.

Precautions

1. Once you identify the email in the Gmail mailbox, delete the email even before opening it. Most threats of viruses that come through the email work only when you open that particular email.
2. The user can manually block the email sender as a precaution to not receive any further emails. Furthermore, to make Google aware, you should report phishing Gmail emails.
3. You can also opt for software to backup all your Gmail data, including all your attachments and mailbox items.
4. Another precaution that can be included is to avoid downloading any files and attachments that you cannot recognize.

Methods to Prevent Gmail Emails from Cyber Phishing

Although Google claims to block 99.9% of the spam, malicious, and phishing emails, you should also be prepared through the below methods to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing.

1. Google 2-Step Verification

The 2-Step Verification is the feature even suggested by Google itself to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing. This feature makes the Gmail account secure, and it comes in handy for instances when someone tries and guesses your Gmail password. If by any means you end up losing your Gmail account login details, even then, this authentication process can save your Gmail account.

Enabling this 2-step authentication serves as extra security in signing in to your Gmail account. It can be turned on from the Security Settings of the Gmail account. The 2-step verification can be added in different ways, i.e., through a mobile number or by adding another email account.

2. Enabling Safe Browsing Feature

To prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing during the COVID19 pandemic, you can utilize the safe browsing feature. It warns the users regarding spyware and phishing email messages. Furthermore, it provides a confirmation alert when you are about to open a suspicious link that can lead to a possible phishing attack.

3. Turn on the HTTPS Security

The HTTPS security prevents the user data from any breach or intrusion. It maintains a secure connection between the server end and the user to protect Gmail emails from cyber phishing. You can enable this security feature in the Settings tab of your Gmail account. Look for the General tab and ensure that the checkbox of HTTPS is marked.

4. Keep Backup of Gmail Email

You can always keep backup of your personal or business Gmail email account in local machine using the Gmail Backup tool. When your Gmail data lost due to cyber phishing in future then you can use the Gmail email backup will use. And you can protect data loss from Gmail during Covid-virus.

   

Conclusion

Here, we have discussed the various aspects of cyber phishing on Gmail emails during COVID-19. It has increased rapidly during pandemic times, and more phishing cases have been reported. Some crucial precautions and methods have been mentioned to prevent Gmail emails from cyber phishing issues. Follow these methods to be aware and save yourself from rising cyber phishing incidents.

Related Post