Google Stored Plaintext Passwords Since 2005

Google has admitted that some of its enterprise customers’ passwords have been erroneously stored in plaintext, in a security issue dating back 14 years. The tech giant’s VP of engineering, Suzanne Frey, explained that the problem occurred when it introduced a new way for G Suite domain administrators to upload and manually set new passwords for their employees, to help with onboarding and account recovery. “We made an error when implementing this functionality back in 2005: The admin console stored a copy of the unhashed password. This practice did not live up to our standards,” she added. “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.” It’s unclear exactly how many users have been affected by this security snafu: Google would only say that it relates to a “subset of G Suite” customers. No consumer Google accounts were impacted.

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GuidePoint Security Announces Portfolio of Data Security Governance Services

GuidePoint Security | January 30, 2024

GuidePoint Security, a cybersecurity solutions leader enabling organizations to make smarter decisions and minimize risk, today announced the availability of its Data Security Governance services, which are designed to help customers address the challenges of unstructured data and data sprawl through a proven process and program to meet their unique needs. GuidePoint’s Data Security Governance services consist of policies, standards, and processes leveraging the newest technologies to meet organizations’ data governance goals in both on-prem and cloud environments. Once the right strategy is determined with the customer, GuidePoint Security consultants will review program requirements, assess current policies and controls, perform gap analysis, design and develop/enhance the program, recommend and implement supporting technologies, and create operational processes and metrics. “Whether an organization is just beginning to build their data security governance program or needs help assessing and improving an existing program, our team and service capabilities are built to meet them at their current maturity level,” said Scott Griswold, Practice Director - Security Governance Services, GuidePoint Security. “We work side by side with the customer to conduct the necessary data discovery in their environment and provide tailored recommendations for solutions and processes to ultimately build/improve upon the data security governance program.” GuidePoint’s Data Security Governance Services include: Sensitive Data Cataloging: For organizations just getting started in the process of protecting their sensitive data, GuidePoint offers Data Identification workshops to identify sensitive data types in the environment, including trade secrets, intellectual property, and sensitive business communications. Data Security Governance Program Assessment: For organizations with existing Data Security Governance or Data Protection programs, GuidePoint Security experts will assess the program to identify policy non-compliance, gaps in data protection requirements—whether legal, regulatory, contractual, or business—and program maturity levels. Data Security Governance Program Strategy Development: The GuidePoint team will work with an organization's key stakeholders to design a program strategy aligned with relevant requirements. The outputs of this effort include delivering ongoing sensitive data discovery, automated classification and labeling, the application of required sensitive data protections, restrictions on where sensitive data can be stored and sent, and data retention policy enforcement. Merger and Acquisition Data Identification: This offering provides the ability to identify sensitive data within an M&A target or recent acquisition (including locations, amounts, and access rights) and then perform penetration testing on the storage repositories where that sensitive data exists to determine the risk of data compromise. About GuidePoint Security GuidePoint Security provides trusted cybersecurity expertise, solutions and services that help organizations make better decisions that minimize risk. Our experts act as your trusted advisor to understand your business and challenges, helping you through an evaluation of your cybersecurity posture and ecosystem to expose risks, optimize resources and implement best-fit solutions. GuidePoint’s unmatched expertise has enabled a third of Fortune 500 companies and more than half of the U.S. government cabinet-level agencies to improve their security posture and reduce risk. Learn more at www.guidepointsecurity.com.

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