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Test Your Web Mail's Password Recovery (Before Someone Else Does)
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 12:00 AM on October 10, 2008
CNET's Michael Horowitz runs down the ins and outs of securing and restoring private, secure access to your Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account, whether it's been infiltrated, locked you out, or you're just looking to ensure its privacy. It's a good guide that might make you think twice about your web mail practices, especially if you haven't run through his final bit of advice: Test your password recovery procedure—the kind that left Sarah Palin's Yahoo Mail account wide open—before anyone else does.
Anyone involved in backing up computer files knows the importance of testing the recovery process and the same applies with Web mail. The best way to insure that you can recover or reset your password is try it.
Horowitz covers the pros and cons of the three major web mail services, so if you're using a different service with better (or worse) security, tell us how you lock it down in the comments.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Red_Flag
Posted 2:07 AM 10/10/08
Excellent information to know. I've thought about testing the recoverability of my gmail accounts, but I was concerned about potentially not being able to get back in.
Red_Flag
sw4383
Posted 3:06 AM 10/10/08
Out of habit I've always had an alternate e-mail address set up on my account, and it is usually my work address. I've been locked out of my e-mail before on the weekend and have had to wait 2-3 days for password recovery. Now that I have a Blackberry I have my work e-mail and my Gmail (through Google Apps) on the device. If I lose my access to Gmail, I can always restore it using my work address.
Another neat trick - my e-mail address isn't the primary administrator account on the domain. I have another account with a random name and an easier to remember password (still difficult) that is associated with another address that I have access to all the time and is only used once every three months to keep the account active. So if some predatory SOB tries anything funny I can just kill the account from my admin login.
sw4383
petebocken
Posted 3:53 AM 10/10/08
I use my GoDaddy email address for my main email account, then have all email forward a copy to my gmail account, then that gmail account forwards a copy to another gmail account. I'd still be pissed if I was locked out of gmail, just because i'd lose all my filters, labels, etc. My Google Calendar is synced to my BlackBerry which is then synced to Exchange with my work account. Then every month I manually export my Google Calendar's to my local hard drive, which is then backed up every night to a USB drive. I also then use Carbonite. Ya, it would take a lot for me to lose my data.
petebocken
jokono
Posted 7:01 AM 10/10/08
Kevin makes a good point here. Make sure your security questions aren't easily guessable, or someone may then be able to break in and read your email (as in the case of Sarah Palin.) Then, they could share their findings and have various idiot blogs, including GAWKER, post them for the world to see (again, as with Sarah Palin.)
jokono
zikman
Posted 2:00 AM 11/10/08
I recently tested gmails password recovery for my back up gmail account, and I found it was kinda of difficult to actually get my password back. it took over a day for the recovery email to show up in my inbox, and even then it didn't give the password straight up
zikman