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Google Stored Passwords in Plain Text Like Facebook

Posted: May 22, 2019 to Cybersecurity.

Tags: Data Breach, Malware, Digital Forensics

Twitter did it. Facebook did it. Now Google's done it. Google revealed Tuesday in a blog post that it accidentally stored its users’ passwords unprotected in plain text. For fourteen years, any Google employee with access to the Google internal servers could read them. G Suite, previously known as Google Apps and mainly a business version of everything Google offers, had a bug in its password recovery feature that mistakenly stored unhashed passwords for some of its enterprise users. The flaw resided in a manual password reset feature that allowed administrators to help onboarding employees or account recovery efforts without actually knowing any previous passwords. "We made an error when implementing this functionality back in 2005: The admin console stored a copy of the unhashed password," Google says. “To be clear, these passwords remained in our secure encrypted infrastructure. This issue has been fixed, and we have seen no evidence of improper access to or misuse of the affected passwords." Google went on to say that only the G Suite apps for businesses were affected. Impacted G Suite administrators were notified, requesting a user reset of passwords. Google will do an automatic forced reset for users who do not comply themselves citing “an abundance of caution.”

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About the Author

Craig Petronella, CEO and Founder of Petronella Technology Group
CEO, Founder & AI Architect, Petronella Technology Group

Craig Petronella founded Petronella Technology Group in 2002 and has spent more than 30 years working at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, compliance, and digital forensics. He holds the CMMC Registered Practitioner credential (RP-1372) issued by the Cyber AB, is an NC Licensed Digital Forensics Examiner (License #604180-DFE), and completed MIT Professional Education programs in AI, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity. Craig also holds CompTIA Security+, CCNA, and Hyperledger certifications.

He is an Amazon #1 Best-Selling Author of 15+ books on cybersecurity and compliance, host of the Encrypted Ambition podcast (95+ episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon), and a cybersecurity keynote speaker with 200+ engagements at conferences, law firms, and corporate boardrooms. Craig serves as Contributing Editor for Cybersecurity at NC Triangle Attorney at Law Magazine and is a guest lecturer at NCCU School of Law. He has served as a digital forensics expert witness in federal and state court cases involving cybercrime, cryptocurrency fraud, SIM-swap attacks, and data breaches.

Under his leadership, Petronella Technology Group has served 2,500+ clients, maintained a zero-breach record among compliant clients, earned a BBB A+ rating every year since 2003, and been featured as a cybersecurity authority on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and WRAL. The company leverages SOC 2 Type II certified platforms and specializes in AI implementation, managed cybersecurity, CMMC/HIPAA/SOC 2 compliance, and digital forensics for businesses across the United States.

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