Secure Your Gmail Account Now As Hackers Attack — Here’s How

You'd be forgiven for thinking that all hope is lost if you are among the 1.8 billion active Gmail users in 2025. After all, headline after headline warns of yet another sophisticated attack attempting to compromise Gmail accounts. However, it's essential to remember that a minuscule minority of Gmail account holders ever actually lose control to a hacker.

As a responsible journalist, I cover the attack methodologies with two distinct purposes in mind: to spread awareness of the threat and to advise users on how to protect themselves from attack. This article focuses firmly on the latter, and it's remarkably easy to do if you act now, before the hackers can strike.

Gmail itself is considered a pretty safe place to be, thanks to groundbreaking large language models trained on phishing, malware, and spam emails working hard in the background, as well as new rules covering strict sender authentication protocols that have had an incredible impact on the amount of potentially malicious spam received by Gmail account holders.

However, attacks do happen on a daily basis, and Gmail account holders do find themselves compromised. Here's the thing: you need to be proactive with your security protections, to work alongside the defenses that Google already has in place, to ensure that your email does not fall into the hands of hackers.

Gmail Account Attack Defense Step One — The Google Security Checkup

The Google Security Checkup is number one on the Gmail account hacker defense list as it represents the most efficient way to ensure that a number of security protections are in place by checking what you already have and don't have activated. Everything from two-factor authentication status to email forwarding activations and safe browsing controls is covered.

Best of all, it's automatic, as soon as you land on the security checkup page, all the details are displayed for your review. Take a few minutes to go through this step and make sure everything is up-to-date and secure.

Gmail Account Attack Defense Step Two — Use The App

Using the Gmail smartphone app could be your best defensive bet against those who exploit novel methods to trap Gmail users, especially when it comes to phishing campaigns. One of the tactics employed by social engineers is to use edited mouseover text in what is known as a link-hovering attack.

Users are warned that they should verify the URL to determine where a link will actually direct them, but doing so does not guarantee security one little bit. By editing the mouseover text, an attacker can make it look like the link is taking you to the right place. This works on web browser clients as the real URL is shown at the bottom of the screen, with the edited text next to the hovered link.

Using the Gmail app doesn't have this shortcoming. "Gmail blocks more than 99.9% of spam, phishing attempts, and malware from reaching you," a Google spokesperson said. "As part of our AI-based protections, Gmail takes into account link obfuscation methods when classifying messages."

Gmail Account Attack Defense Step Three — Check Your Account Activity

The increasingly sophisticated methods being employed by threat actors, especially when it comes to phishing, where AI-driven campaigns are now the norm rather than the exception, demand that users do two vital things to better protect their Gmail accounts in the face of such attacks.

As most, if not all, of these phishing attacks will be very convincing from the get go and employ urgency tactics to try and get a knee-jerk fear reaction from the victim, it's essential that the first thing you do is take a deep breath and count to 10 if you find yourself being pressurised in this way.

I know, that's easier said than done, but you can get into the habit of taking your time by counting to 10 before taking any action as a result of an email or telephone call. What's that ten seconds going to cost you? Nothing. Yet, this could provide you with protection that is more valuable than anything.

Secondly, as many of these attempts will convince you that your Gmail account is under active attack, and the hacker in question is trying to change your password or 2FA options, hence the urgency, check your account yourself. Check your Gmail activity to see what, if any, devices other than your own have been using the account.

I'm willing to bet the answer will be a big fat zero. Don't let Gmail account hackers get the upper hand; be proactive, establish your defenses now, and continue to use the most popular email platform with less risk.