Worried if workstation is affected by spyware.

[Swilson 0]

Hey! I need a little help as soon as possible. I got a message in my personal gmail account that a sign in attempt from Amsterdam was blocked. This message came a few hours after I logged into the account from my office. Does this mean my account has been compromised by something in my office system? I have already changed my mail passwords, but I am concerned if my office workstation is affected by spyware or trojan. A few weeks back, I have read articles like this: hxxp://nci.ca/what-can-you-do-to-protect-yourself-from-spyware-malware-and-ransomware/ about protection from such spyware and trojan attacks and I have been taking all sorts of precaution against such attacks. I don't know I still got attacked. Should I inform the company IT admin and ensure a detailed system check up?

 

[itman 1,659]

16 hours ago, Swilson said:

I got a message in my personal gmail account that a sign in attempt from Amsterdam was blocked.

Did you verify this was a legit e-mail from Google?

If an e-mail logon attempt is blocked, usually the account is locked and a special procedure is required to reactivate the account. This usually entails you requesting a new logon id/password. Then the e-mail provider goes through a number of procedures to verify your identity. If successful, you are issued a temporary password usually effective for a certain period of time.

[Swilson 0]

It was a legit mail from Google. Account wasn't blocked, but it asked to verify my phone number and recovery email which I did.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Swilson

[itman 1,659]

As far as someone/something trying to logon your Gmail account, it most likely is due to your logon being stolen as a result of the constant hacks against commercial concerns that have occurred where you did e-commerce activities .

I have identity theft protection and it alerts me about such. However, I don't recollect any logon attempts against my e-mail account but such activity is certainly possible. Just make sure you assign a "strong" password to that e-mail account.

Using numbers, symbols and mix of upper and lower case letters in your password makes it harder for someone to guess your password. For example, an eight-character password with numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters is harder to guess because it has 30,000 times as many possible combinations than an eight-character password with only lower case letters. 

Create a unique password that's unrelated to your personal information and uses a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. For example, you can select a random word or phrase and insert letters and numbers into the beginning, middle, and end to make it extra difficult to guess (such as "sPo0kyh@ll0w3En"). Don’t use simple words or phrases like "password" or "letmein," keyboard patterns such as "qwerty" or "qazwsx," or sequential patterns such as "abcd1234" which make your password easier to guess.

Ref.: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32040?hl=en

Edited April 4, 2017 by itman