Google is officially debunking a series of reports that claimed Gmail has been hit with a “major” security issue in recent days. “We want to reassure our users that Gmail’s protections are strong and effective,” the company said in a somewhat unusual statement. “Several inaccurate claims surfaced recently that incorrectly stated that we issued a broad warning to all Gmail users about a major Gmail security issue. This is entirely false.”
Google doesn’t detail the erroneous claims in its post. But, as Forbes points out, it seems to be referring to several recent reports that stated the company issued an “emergency warning” to all of its 2.5 billion users in response to a phishing attack that targeted a Salesforce instance used by the company. That incident, however, was first reported by Google in early June, and the company said in an August 8 update that it had finished notifying everyone affected.
It’s not clear why that report resurfaced now or how it was misconstrued into a supposed warning impacting all Gmail users, but Google is now trying to set the record straight. “While it’s always the case that phishers are looking for ways to infiltrate inboxes, our protections continue to block more than 99.9% of phishing and malware attempts from reaching users,” the company said. “It’s crucial that conversation in this space is accurate and factual.”
Google also notes that it encourages all users to set up “a secure password alternative,” such as a passkey for maximum protection.