Google Data Breach — August 8 Email Warnings Now Confirmed
Google confirms it has now notified victims of hack.
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
It has been quite a week for Google users: first came the confirmation that the technology giant had been hacked and Google user data breached, quickly followed by news of another hack attack, this time impacting Google Cloud customers. The release of the Chrome 139 security update following the disclosure of multiple vulnerabilities, a spike in Google account attacks, and three email warnings from Google seemed somewhat tame by comparison. But it’s confirmation of official email warnings that is the latest development in the Google data breach saga. Here’s what we know.
The Google Data Breach
The Google Threat Intelligence Group first alerted the world to a successful hack attack against Google on August 5, when it confirmed that a database had been accessed by attackers thought to be associated with the ShinyHunters ransomware and extortion group, also more formally known as UNC6040, leading to the compromise of user data. The database, a Salesforce instance, was used “to store contact information and related notes for small and medium businesses,” the Google announcement stated. The full extent of the breach is still to be confirmed. Google has so far said that the stolen data comprised “basic and largely publicly available business information, such as business names and contact details.”
Now Google has updated that confirmation with another. This time, answering a question that had been on the lips of many in the cybersecurity industry, as well as Google users themselves. That question being whether impacted organizations had been informed of the attack and the data that had been stolen. “This could mean these organisations are only finding out about the breach now,” William Wright, CEO of Closed Door Security told me at the time, “meaning the criminals could have held on to the data, unknown to victims, for almost two months.” The August 8 update by Google provides some closure in that it first confirmed “Emails are actively being sent to those affected by this incident,” and shortly after that, “Google has completed its email notifications to those affected by this incident.”
It has not been made clear what the precise content of those Google data breach notification emails might be, but if you have received one, I would be more than happy if you were to forward it to me. I will update this article with further information should I get hold of an email, suitably redacted, of course.