Google advises Iranian Users to Secure Accounts
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 00:36 IST
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Google advises Iranian Users to Secure Accounts
Bangalore: The search engine giant Google advised its Iranian users to change their email passwords to avoid falling victim to online attacks. The news was aired after the immense DigiNotar plunder that took place on July 19th, during which an Iranian hacker stole a Google authentication certificate from DigiNotar, a Dutch site authentication authority. The digital certificate hack potentially allowed hackers to acquire access to the Google accounts of 300,000 Iranians. In a blog post Eric Grosse, Vice President of security engineering at Google wrote, "While Google's internal systems were not compromised; we are directly contacting possibly affected users and providing similar information below because our top priority is to protect the privacy and security of our users." The search engine giant requested the users in Iran to change their passwords. It also suggested the users to verify their account recovery options like the secondary email addresses, phone numbers? Google encouraged users to double check the web sites and applications that have access to their accounts, and cancel anything unfamiliar. Gmail users were also urged to check settings for doubtful forwarding addresses or delegated accounts. The company also warned the users not to click through web sites if a warning emerged before they load. After the incident browser makers like Google, Microsoft, Adobe and Mozilla rapidly moved to block DigiNotar digital certificates.

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