Google Issues Worldwide Gmail Data Breach Warning

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Source: Newsweek

Published Aug 31, 2025 at 5:53 AM EDT


Google has issued a global security alert advising its 2.5 billion Gmail users to update their passwords following a data breach involving one of its Salesforce databases. Though consumer Gmail and Cloud accounts were not directly compromised, the incident has triggered an aggressive wave of phishing and impersonation attacks targeting users across the platform. Newsweek contacted Google for more information via email outside of normal working hours.

Why It Matters

While the exposed database did not contain passwords or sensitive consumer data, the stolen business contact details have been used in a wave of phishing campaigns that mimic legitimate communications from Google. According to Google's threat research team, phishing and "vishing"—voice phishing via phone calls—now account for 37 percent of successful account takeovers across Google platforms.

What To Know

The breach involved business contact information such as company and customer names, which hackers have used to craft highly convincing phishing emails and voice-based social engineering scams. The attacker group behind the breach, identified as ShinyHunters, gained access by impersonating an IT help desk to a Google employee, ultimately deploying malware to extract the database contents, according to blog post by the tech giant dated August 5.

The breach, which was disclosed publicly the same day, originated from a Salesforce database used internally by Google to manage potential advertisers.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/google-gmail-data-breach-warning-2122287