Change Your Passwords NOW says Google

Millions of Gmail users are being warned to change their passwords after the ShinyHunters attack struck Google's Salesforce database in June. Though that breach did not expose user information – only basic and largely publicly available business information, according to Google – it still leaves regular Gmail customers open to phishing and social engineering attacks. ShinyHunters has been particularly successful in vishing attacks where it makes a phone call impersonating IT staff in order to deceive a caller into revealing their login credentials.

Google has advised Gmail users to be on alert as it feels that the hacking group may be preparing to escalate their efforts to launch a data leak site (DLS). Those who may have been affected by the incident should have received an email. According to a Reddit post, Gmail users are now being targeted in vishing attacks coming from phone numbers with a 650 area code.

The calls themselves are from scammers that claim to be Google employees contacting victims to alert them about a security breach that affects their accounts. During these scam phone calls, the attackers attempt to take over the victims Gmail accounts by getting users to reset their password and provide this information to them. This locks the user out of their own account and hands the password over to the scammer.

Story credit to https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/online-security/google-issues-warning-to-2-5-million-gmail-users-change-your-password-right-now