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Google is facing controversy after recently admitting to accidentally storing user passwords in clear text. These passwords were unprotected due to a bug and only affected a "small percentage of G Suite users".
G Suite users may want to think about other cloud computing options. Apparently, Google stores passwords in plain text because of a bug. The bug apparently would not have had an impact on individual consumer accounts, but would have jeopardized the accounts of companies and businesses.
Bad Google
Google generally stores its passwords in a cryptographically encrypted hash. However, because of the bug, the G Suite password recovery feature for administrators allowed one way or another to save passwords in the administrator's control panel. Recently, Google has disabled the feature at the origin of the security risk.
However, for a long time, passwords were accessible to both authorized Google staff and malicious hackers.
The plaintext bug is not new. In fact, Twitter and Facebook have both addressed similar issues in recent years. However, Google goes even further by automatically resetting passwords as a precaution. So, congratulations for taking this extra step.
The problem is that this bug has been around since at least 2005. Although the company claims that passwords have never been compromised, 14 years is a long time to go unnoticed. .
If you are a G Suite user, you really need to add two-factor authentication and pray that your password has never been compromised.
Centralized entities and password storage
If you least suspect that Big Tech retains your data, you should also be concerned that they hold your confidential login information. We still hear about these solutions after the fact, but who knows how many of these bugs and security breaches we can expect in the years to come? They seem to be becoming more and more common.
Entrusting your personal information (private contact information, sensitive information, passwords or other) to centralized entities is always a risk. This is partly why a decentralized world is so necessary. If Google were an entity operating a distributed ledger system (ie a blockchain), these security risks would be impossible.
However, given that we are so far from adapting the blockchain to a complex level like Google, it is an idea that deserves to be examined. The fact is that we need and deserve alternatives.
Do you think decentralization is the way to go when it comes to Big Tech? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
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