A substantial
number of Gmail users have been affected by a potential but unconfirmed hack of
unknown origin or purpose.
El Reg learnt of the issue following a tip from a self-described "very
security conscious" IT professional who got locked out of his Gmail
account. This happened after one of his security phone numbers was changed.
Apparently others
have suffered somewhat similar problems and have posted their experiences
to Reddit and
elsewhere. Users are receiving messages saying that their account has been
changed, and asking them to re-sign into Google on their mobile. It's not clear
if some sort of glitch or a hack is to blame.
This is more a
case of being bounced out of accounts than being locked out as such.
In response to
a thread on one of its official forums, Google said it was
investigating the issue while downplaying concerns.
“We've gotten reports about some users being signed out
of their accounts, unexpectedly. We're investigating, but not to worry: there
is no indication that this is connected to any phishing or account security
threats.”
El Reg requested comment directly from Google on Friday morning but we're
yet to hear back. While we've been waiting for a response, we've canvassed
security folks through Twitter, two of whom have said they've been been asked
to reauthenticate themselves and log back into their Google accounts.
No comments:
Post a Comment