Update, Oct. 09, 2024: This story, originally published Oct. 07, includes new advice about how attackers bypass 2FA protections and how best to mitigate these dangers before a hacker can exploit your Gmail or Microsoft 365 account.
Search any of the Gmail support forums online, from social media platforms such as the Gmail subreddit or the official Gmail community help from Google itself, and one question comes up time and time again: my Gmail account has been hacked, how can I recover it?
Disregarding the inevitable dodgy attempts at uncovering some magic way to hack into someone else’s account, the majority are still likely to be genuine requests for help. Take this example, published to the Gmail subreddit Oct. 06, which is analogous to many: “A friend of mine’s Google account got stolen. The hacker changed the recovery phone number and email address.” The poster explains that the friend in question had enabled two-factor authentication and asks if anything can be done to recover the account now, “or is he cooked?
The good news is that it’s still entirely possible to recover a Google account even if, as in this case, the hacker has managed to evade or change most, if not all, the security and recovery protections that were in place. Even if, as the poster replied to one suggested solution, “whoever stole the account changed the recovery email and phone number to their own and disabled all other recovery methods.”
How To Recover A Stolen Gmail Account After A Hacker Changes Everything
Google does, despite the negative opinions of many people seemingly frustrated by the process, offer lots of help in recovering your Google account, even in the case of it being stolen by someone who has then changed your recovery details. Indeed, there’s a whole section of Google support devoted to securing a “hacked or compromised” account. I suspect that most people who say these steps don’t work haven’t followed the instructions provided by Google precisely and waited the allotted time for the process to complete.
