So I’ve known that I should stop using my gmail accounts for some time, but while I’ve been moving in that direction I haven’t done so yet, and I found out this morning that a friend received an email spoofing my gmail address with a link - he fortunately didn’t click on it and alerted me. I’ve reset my password and I have 2 factor authentication but am not sure what else I need to do - and what my best bet is for how to scan for malware on my macbook, Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
You can check somewhere on when your account has been accessed. My yahoo account had many access points I didn’t do myself-
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Download anti-virus software immediately and apply it to your Mac. Here is a list of the top anti-virus software utilities for your Mac. https://www.thetop10antivirus.com/best-antivirus-for-mac
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Stop using gmail immediately. Not tomorrow, immediately. Your account has been compromised, and with so many better alternatives out the, such as iCloud Mail, which has excellent basic security, if you don’t switch immediately, it will happen again.
Hi Karen,
I would also report it to google, if you can find a good entrance (I do not use gmail, so can’t help there).
Are you sure your email was used, or did it only appear that way? I don’t know for sure with gmail, but for a google account login, Google sends a security warning if some other device is first seen using it. So if it was really your email, it might indeed be that your laptop was compromised, so you should do that anti-virus scanning @spiritofernie suggests. Note that an anti-virus scan that yields nothing is not a 100% guarantee, but will be accurate in majority of cases (catches anything but a dedicated hacker that took the time to bury him/herself in your PC, which is rare, and might also miss malware that is brand new).
Might also be a good idea to warn people in your contact list to be careful before opening mails coming from your gmail address.
Furthermore, I would - best from a different PC, that you trust - change the passwords of other user accounts you use on the web, not just those of Google services. If you were infected with malware, a keylogger or other scripts might have been installed and the attacker could be in possession of some of your passwords.
With regards to email: I have stopped using Yahoo and Gmail accounts, since they violate your privacy by scanning all your mail for advertising and other purposes (Google supposedly stopped doing this in 2016, but they may still feed your data to their AI systems, and may change their policy in the future. Yahoo/Verizon/Oath is analysing everything and reselling it).
I have chosen ProtonMail, which has security and privacy as their unique selling points, and I pay $4 p/m for it.
Finally you can also check if you have been pwn’ed i.e. if your account details somewhere have been obtained in a data breach. You can do that check at: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
The site is maintained by a well-known authority in IT.
I also use ProtonMail for secure email issues.