MalwareGmail
Crooks selling an infostealer called Remus claim they can keep reading your Gmail even after you change your password. That’s their sales pitch: researchers haven’t confirmed how it works or whether access survives full account recovery, and no Gmail vulnerability has been demonstrated. Cracked software, game cheats and ‘free premium’ downloads are common routes for stealers.
The move
Skip the cracked apps and cheat tools. If you think you’ve been hit, change your Google password on a different device, sign out devices you don’t recognise, check for dodgy forwarding rules and turn on 2FA — and clean up the infected device before you log in on it again.
Practise it: Permission Panic →
For teachers
Talking about this in class
A quick way in: someone in Year 10 downloads a ‘free’ cracked version of paid software or a game cheat, and weeks later odd logins start appearing on their email. What’s the link? The point to land is that password-stealers commonly arrive bundled with pirated or cracked downloads, so the cheapest protection is simply not installing them.
The misconception worth testing: students often think changing your password instantly fixes a hacked account. Ask what else an attacker might have set up while they were in — the follow-up is email forwarding rules, connected apps and changed recovery details, which a password reset leaves in place. A good answer gets to ‘sign out all devices and check what still has access’, not just ‘new password’.
The habit: after any suspected compromise, recover the account on a trusted device and review signed-in sessions, connected apps, recovery details and email forwarding — not just the password — then clean the infected device before using it again. A quick vote on ‘what would you do first’ surfaces the ordering nicely.
If a student says their account or device has already been hit: they’re not in trouble and it isn’t their fault. Help them change the password on a clean device, turn on 2FA and check for unfamiliar forwarding rules, then follow your school’s usual process for passing on a concern.