NEED TO KNOW
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Certain Google users’ data may be at risk after a recent breach
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Hackers attacked the tech giant’s Salesforce database, which stores and manages customer data for businesses
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Google recommends using a passkey — like a fingerprint or face scan — for maximum account security
After a data breach at Google, certain users’ information may be at risk.
Hackers have breached the tech giant’s Salesforce database, which stores and manages customer data for businesses, per Forbes. However, this doesn’t mean that the average Google user should panic: Google Cloud and Gmail data were not affected, per the outlet.
The breach only involved “a limited set of basic business contact information used to communicate with potential advertisers,” per a statement from Google provided to the tech publication PC World.
This means that while some information, like customer and company names, was leaked, personal passwords were not, per the outlet.
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Google offices
Regardless, Google encourages all users to stay up-to-date with password protection, especially due to a surge in new AI-fueled hacking campaigns, as Forbes previously reported in June.
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Google recommends that users use passkeys — which utilize biometric data like fingerprints and facial scans — to maintain optimal account security. Passkeys are recommended over 2]-factor authentication, which was the previous gold standard in device security.
“Passkeys provide the strongest protection against threats like phishing. Once you create a passkey, you can use it to easily sign in to your Google Account, as well as some third-party apps or services, and to verify it’s you when you make sensitive changes,” per Google Account Help.
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Man on phone (stock image)
“Unlike passwords, passkeys can only exist on your devices. They can’t be written down or accidentally given to a bad actor,” Google added.
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PEOPLE reached out to Google for comment on Saturday, Aug. 30, but did not receive an immediate response.
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