Google Admits to a Security Flaw Affecting 1.5 Billion of Users

 Google has finally admitted to vulnerability that has security repercussions for nearly 1.5 billion of its users. This security flaw was brought to the notice of Google two years ago by researchers at Black Hills Information Security. These researchers had claimed that vulnerability in Google Calendar app was enough for hackers to allow hackers to steal information from he computers of users of Gmail around the country. It is only now that Gmail support number is acknowledging the existence of this security flaw.

Google did not take any steps to fix this security flaw back in 2017 as it would have resulted in drop in functionality for the users of its Google Calendar app. This was despite the fact that these researchers demonstrated how this vulnerability could be exploited as a weapon by hackers to steal information from the computers of users of Gmail. At that time, Google said that its policy was to prevent spread of malicious content on the services offered by the company. But it is only now after 2 years that Google is taking concrete action on this security problem affecting billions of its users.

Google Calendar is an app that can be used by anyone to schedule a meeting with anyone else using Gmail. Google has built seamless integration with Google Calendar. Taking advantage of this integration, a hacker can send calendar invitation to another individual. He gets a notification that pops up on his mobile phone. Sender can easily include a malicious link in his message which could be anything from a poll providing financial incentive or an online poll with the participant required to provide his bank or credit card details. This security flaw opens up endless possibilities of phishing and social engineering attacks. If you are still unaware of how these attacks work, you can contact Gmail support number to learn more about them.

Now, 2 years later, Google has finally acknowledged that it is aware of the spam taking place in Google Calendar. It has also confirmed that the company is working diligently to resolve the security flaw. It is clear to everyone that close linking of Gmail and Google Calendar by Google inadvertently created a space for people with malicious intentions. Anyone can send a Calendar invitation to another person whether he knows him or not provided both are users of Gmail.

If anyone tries to take advantage of this vulnerability, he can easily send a fake invitation to another individual which would be likely to be clicked by innocent and gullible users.

As Google is yet to take any measure to prevent this possibility of phishing, you are still vulnerable to attacks from hackers. It is prudent for you to contact any reliable Gmail support service to learn a method to keep such Google Calendar invites at bay. The most basic method is to go to Calendar settings and then Event Settings. Now click on Automatically Add Invitations and choose the option of No to make sure you never get such calendar invitations.

more information: aim mail