Google introduces security warnings for Gmail users

Gmail is a web and application-based email service that was launched on 1st April 2004, on an invitation-only platform.

Run by technology giant Google, it soon became available to the public on 7th February 2007.

Clocking over 1 billion users worldwide, Gmail users are assured that their information is only read by computers, compared to other email platforms where privacy policies are different.

Cyber crimes are now a reality with the plethora of information on a user available online.

When a hacker obtains a user's email address and phone number, it then becomes easy to gain access to the user's Gmail account through requesting for a password reset function.

The hacker then poses as Google to obtain the victim's information and gains access to his Gmail account.

Earlier this year, Russia was in the limelight when cyber criminals gained access to a massive 272.3 million user accounts across Microsoft, Yahoo, Gmail and Russia's Mail.ru.

This came under the scanner when a hacker posted online that he was putting nearly 1.17 billion records for sale.

After investigations, it was found that there were millions belonging to Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft users.

Google launched new alerts for its Gmail account users, where they are alerted when an unauthorized email hits their inbox.

In a blog post, Google said that if an email received by a user can't be verified using certain security features, it will flag the email sender's avatar with a question mark.

The update is applicable to both Gmail web and Android users.