Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

What to do if your Google account was phished in today’s ‘Google Docs’ attack

Revoke access immediately.

South Korean Anglers Compete In The Ice Festival’s Mountain Trout Competition
South Korean Anglers Compete In The Ice Festival’s Mountain Trout Competition
Chung Sung-Jun / Getty

The massive phishing campaign targeting Gmail users that spread across the internet today has been disabled by Google.

The hack was carried out by sending an email that posed as an invitation to join a Google Doc by someone in your contact list.

When users clicked on the Google Doc link, they were sent to a page that actually goes to Google.com. It then requests permission for the app that the attacker wrote to access your Gmail account.

“The attacker was then given permission to read all your emails, view your contacts and send emails on your behalf and delete emails in your inbox without ever having your login information,” said Cooper Quintin, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who says he received over 400 emails from people who were compromised in the hour after news of the attack broke.

The hack works whether or not you’ve changed your password or have two-factor authentication enabled, said Quintin.

Here’s what to do if you have been (or think you have been) compromised by the attack:

  1. Go to your Google account management page.
  2. If you see an app called Google Docs, click on it to opt to revoke permission for the app to access your account.
  3. Then change your password, just to be safe.
  4. Enable two-factor authentication on your account as an extra precaution. Two-factor authentication is the option to text a code to a phone number on file for your account so only a person with both your password and your cellphone can access your account.

“It’s totally unclear what this app was doing,” said Quintin. “We still don’t know what the purpose of this phishing campaign was.”

It’s still okay to use Google Docs, since that service wasn’t compromised; the email merely pretended to be from Google Docs. Still, it’s probably best not to share any Google Docs with anyone today while people are still responding to the hack, said Quintin.

Here’s the statement from Google on the attack:

We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonating Google Docs, and have disabled offending accounts. We’ve removed the fake pages, pushed updates through Safe Browsing, and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again. We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel