It seems that hackers have set out on a mission to break through databases of large high end corporations. First it was the iCloud debacle that made cyber crime the hottest news of the month; now it’s Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) turn; its database has been compromised with an apparent leak of over 5 million accounts of English and Russian users.
Russian bitcoin security forums received a text file which had over 5 million user names and passwords of different accounts. Many of these accounts, reportedly 60 percent, are still active. Once again, no one has any idea where the leak came from and when the breach happened. These accounts may have been leaked months or years ago. And these 5 million are the only ones that are known; there could be more.
Google’s security is known to be top notch but the incident has shaken its credibility. Just like Apple, they have come out with face saving statements that implore the users to have strong passwords and two step verification security module.
The user name and passwords not only enables you to log in to the user’s Gmail but also other Google services as well.
Cyber Crime has made its mark on Russia as well; just a day ago over six million accounts of Mail.ru were hacked and leaked – Mail.ru is a Russian internet service provider.
Google hasn’t formally come out with an official stance on this issue except for its statement regarding sophisticated passwords and two step verification process to strengthen security. It is interesting to know that all these companies that claim to have impregnable security systems can only do so much when actual hacking occurs. They can only go out and ask the public to be better with their password selection. All the big online corporations, if breached, inform their users about the breach instantly. It’s not much of a remedy because by the time a user reacts, the hacker has succeeded in his goal.
But Google Inc. didn’t even inform its users about the hack, in fact it wasn’t aware of it at all. 5 million accounts are not meager and cannot be taken lightly. Most of these accounts are active and linked to other Google online services.
Such incidents raise the inevitable question: Is internet really secure? Is internet actually safe for your private data? I think for a long time people have known the answer to these questions, but they choose to believe the exaggerated security claims made by the companies that rule the cyber world.
The facts are screeching loud: security has been comprised. Not of some small obscure online company but of a giant corporation. And the sad thing is there is no genuine counter approach to such hacks. You can only raise the steps of your verification modules. But then again what could that guarantee? What’s a multiple step verification wall to a pro hacker who can break into Google’s and Apple’s database?
Both of these companies will obviously deny that it wasn’t actually their system that was breached. Apple can back up that fact because only a handful of celebrity accounts were hacked into, but Google is staring at a staggering number of 5 million accounts.
It will be interesting to see what Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has to say ‘formally’ about the breach: whether it persists on the two step verification plan or introduces an actual counter solution to the whole problem.