Google Mail Security

gallery

Trapdoors for when it goes awry

And what should you do if it happens to you? Well the first is to report it to Google as soon as possible - and keep a note of what you send via the forms. But to keep everything running, there are two 'trapdoors' you might want to consider putting in place.

The first is to not give out your Gmail address, but rather an email address you control (maybe on a private domain) that simply forwards everything received into your Gmail account. If you loose access to the account, then you can point your forwarding address to somewhere that is accessible, ensuring access to new incoming email is not interrupted while you recover access to Gmail.

The second is to have Gmail forward every mail received to another email box. Of course this can be switched off if your account is compromised, but if you are simply locked out for 24 hours, you'll be able to carry on receiving mail.

Finally...

It's worth pointing out that Gmail, like many Web 2.0 sites, is still in beta, and therefore is still 'use at your own risk'. Google makes no promises on data integrity at all, and reserve the right to delete your account with no notice or reason. While it may be one of the better online email services, to rely on it for business reasons is not wise.

Email to a friend

Print this page