Google+ exposed personal information on 500,000 of its users

10 Oct 2018 · 1 min

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1:17

In a brief interview, host Speaker A welcomes cyber‑security analyst Robert Siciliano (Hotspot Shield) to discuss a recent Google+ vulnerability that exposed roughly 500,000 users' email addresses. Siciliano frames the incident as a symptom of the broader erosion of online privacy, noting that while no highly sensitive data (SSNs, credit cards) were leaked, the exposed emails could be weaponized for fraud. The conversation critiques Google's "don't be evil" branding, accusing the company of attempting to hide the bug. Both speakers anticipate strong reactions from regulators, especially the EU under GDPR, and wonder whether U.S. authorities will intervene. The segment ends with a nod to the broader industry challenge of protecting networks against operator error and systemic vulnerabilities.

What a story. Hillary, thank you so much for your reporting there. Let's bring in cyber expert. He's a Hotspot Shield security analyst. He's Robert Siciliano. Pretty weak comeback from Google. Just because they didn't find any evidence doesn't mean it wasn't misused. I mean, this is weak stuff from Google's rationale here. Are they in trouble?
You know, it's just a further sign of the erosion of privacy. Certainly nobody likes the way that Google handled it. The only good news to come out of this is that the data that was essentially available was not things like Social Security numbers or credit card numbers, but it was email addresses. And in the wrong hands, that could certainly lead to fraud.
You know, Google's model is don't be evil, but then Google tried to hide this security bug. You got to imagine that the EU is going to go crazy over this.
Yeah, you know, GDPR and etc., that this is an ongoing issue that Google and Facebook and others continue to face. You know, they can only protect protect their networks to a certain degree, but then when there's operator error, when the, when the Google themselves, uh, has a vulnerability because of some flaw in their network, uh, that's a significant issue.
Yeah, I'm going to watch too if the U.S. steps in here. Thank you, Robert Siciliano. Good to see you, sir. Cyber pro there. Thank you. Even liberal HBO host Bill Maher