Hacker Attack

Chances are, your personal data has been compromised multiple times—most recently through a data breach of Google records that impacts a remarkable 2.5 billion (with a ‘b’) people. A cybercriminal group calling itself the ShinyHunters hacked Google’s cloud-based system through the Salesforce customer relationship management program, exposing Gmail and Google Cloud user data worldwide.

The bad actors impersonated Salesforce’s IT support technicians in phone conversations, targeting English-speaking users who provided services to multinational companies.  ShinyHunters had previously hacked AT&T Wireless, Mashable, Microsoft, Santander, Ticketmaster and Wattpad.  In each case, the group sold stolen database information on the dark web, and meanwhile extorted the victim organizations by threatening to expose the information they collected unless they were paid in bitcoin within 72 hours.

The breach, of course, triggered the usual cautions from cybersecurity experts: enable two-factor authentication and use unique passwords across different accounts like email, banking or social media.  It is also recommended that users routinely update Google and Android apps, browsers and operating systems to ensure that you have the latest and most secure versions. And, of course, don’t click on suspicious links, especially those asking for personal information such as passwords.

Finally, if you have financial information such as credit card data on GooglePay, you should check your account for any unauthorized purchases.  And if you have photos or videos stored on GoogleDrive, they might be shared without your permission.

If only the tech workers at Salesforce had been this careful, you wouldn’t be receiving this warning.

Source:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/google-sounds-alarm-massive-data-174500558.html