Secure GMail

I have been using Google’s GMail for all my email for roughly a year and a half now. It is great that I can access it from almost anywhere, including my mobile phone. I have always made sure I connected to GMail using SSL but reading Slashdot this morning I realized that many people probably don’t. Not using SSL encryption on GMail might leave your connection open to hackers gaining access to your GMail acount and possibly all of your Google Accounts.

In any case Google has now made it easy for you to make sure your connection to GMail is always using SSL. Simple click on the Settings link and under the General tab scroll to the bottom. Here you will see a section that says Browser Connection. Click “Always use https” and click save and you will always login and use GMail using SSL encryption.

If you use GMail I would encourage you to always use SSL to connect and read email. No point in leaving it open to others to hack. Not sure why Google would wait so long to make this an option or even why it is an option in the first place, it should just be that way.