One day I logged in to my Amazon account from a different country. Mind you, I have 2FA/OTP enabled in my account, and I entered it correctly. They also made me click on a link they sent via email to "verify my login". A couple hours later my account was blocked due to "suspicious login(s)" (i.e. mine), and the order I placed cancelled. They had me wait 24h until I could contact someone at support that could unblock…
Ask HN: Gmail account security
201–210 of 807 posts
Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
With Google’s nonexistent customer service I’d be afraid of being locked out for any arbitrary reason and having no recourse no matter what recovery procedures I prepared for. Contrast that to my bank where I can go to the branch, show ID, and get problems logging in resolved.
FYI, google has customer service if you're paying them. I pay $6 a month for gsuite. I've contacted customer service 3 times. Got them instantly.
Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or maybe do they really want your phone number? (Uninformed guess but isn't it valuable data?)
My phone number is probably the least valuable thing Amazon knows about me, I figure.
Phone 2 factor is pretty much the only kind of 2 factor most people will accept, and for most people the phone number probably has better security than most people's emails, because most people reuse passwords, while with phones you had to do a special non-password effort for them.
Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security
#204Had this. It was telling me to try again 'later'. Ok, i did 'try later' every day for three weeks, and they didn't let me in. Using the very same IP address as I used to always access it, no less. Then, I gave up, moved all my services to another email account, and after 2 or 3 months tried logging in, and it suddenly allowed me to log in. Needless to say, I will never again use gmail for critically important things.
My solution is, buy your own domain. It's cheap and it will cost you only 20$ a year or something like that. I'm not saying run your own email service (I do, but I recognize that it's complex and not worth for most people), but use a public email service (like also GMail) with your own domain. That way at least if you no longer can access your account, or you get banned, or whatever, you don't loose your address (sin…
Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
With Google’s nonexistent customer service I’d be afraid of being locked out for any arbitrary reason and having no recourse no matter what recovery procedures I prepared for. Contrast that to my bank where I can go to the branch, show ID, and get problems logging in resolved.
A plug from a very satisfied customer: I pay $5/month for Fastmail. I've emailed support before and reached a human within hours. They helped me with my problem, because it was their job and I'm paying them to do it. Email is too important to rely on a free service which has a history of shutting people out, at any time, for any reason.
Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 2FA with Google Authenticator I just wanted to recommend Aegis as an alternative to Google Authenticator. It allows backing up codes to an encrypted (password protected) file. Plus it's FOSS.
I use 1password as an Authenticator replacement, which saves time when logging in.
A single password manager should only be used to store TOTP secrets alongside passwords if you're comfortable with both of them being accessed from the same devices. It's possible to store your TOTP secrets in a Bitwarden account or a KeePass file, and your passwords in another account or file, hosted/stored in different locations.
[1] https://bitwarden.com/pricing/business/
Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
With Google’s nonexistent customer service I’d be afraid of being locked out for any arbitrary reason and having no recourse no matter what recovery procedures I prepared for. Contrast that to my bank where I can go to the branch, show ID, and get problems logging in resolved.
A plug from a very satisfied customer: I pay $5/month for Fastmail. I've emailed support before and reached a human within hours. They helped me with my problem, because it was their job and I'm paying them to do it. Email is too important to rely on a free service which has a history of shutting people out, at any time, for any reason.
Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
this only works if your post gets upvoted. which in the grand scheme of things is rare. have you been to the "new" page lately?
(you're all checking out the 'new' page now, aren't you?)