Google says Gmail security is "strong and effective" as it denies major breach

"The sky is falling, and Gmail has supposedly been hacked to bits by malicious parties unknown. Or has it? Reports circulated last week claiming that Gmail was the subject of a major data breach, citing a series of warnings Google has distributed and increasing reports of phishing attacks. The hysteria was short-lived, though. In a brief post on its official blog, Google says that Gmail's security is "strong and effective," and reports to the contrary are mistaken."

"Google experienced a Gmail data breach in June, but the attack was limited to the company's corporate Salesforce server. The hacker was able to access publicly available information like business names and contact details, but no private information was compromised. Over the following weeks, Google alerted Gmail users to an increase in phishing attacks in July and August. It didn't offer many details, but many believed the spike in phishing was related to the corporate server breach."

Gmail's security remains intact despite widespread reports of a major breach. A June incident exposed only publicly available business names and contact details from Google's corporate Salesforce server; no private user data was compromised. Google issued alerts about increased phishing attempts in July and August, which many people conflated with the June server incident. Social media amplified fears, prompting recommendations to change passwords and enable two-factor authentication. Google characterized security as strong and effective and stated that the reports of a mass breach were mistaken. General security measures such as password changes and two-factor authentication remain sensible precautions.

Read at Ars Technica