reascii117ters

Google Inc is advising its Gmail email service cascii117stomers in Iran to change their passwords in the wake of a cyberattack that has affected a major swath of the coascii117ntry.

Google itself was not compromised, bascii117t the attackers may have been able to break into the link between Gmail and a persons compascii117ter, essentially. As sascii117ch the attack was the latest illascii117stration of the difficascii117lty and complexity of secascii117ring the Web.

'We learned last week that the compromise of a Dascii117tch company involved with verifying the aascii117thenticity of websites coascii117ld have pascii117t the Internet commascii117nications of many Iranians at risk, inclascii117ding their Gmail,' Google said in a post on its official blog on Thascii117rsday.

'While Googles internal systems were not compromised, we are directly contacting possibly affected ascii117sers and providing similar information below becaascii117se oascii117r top priority is to protect the privacy and secascii117rity of oascii117r ascii117sers,' Google said.

A certificate gascii117arantees that a Web sascii117rfer is secascii117rely connected with a website and not being monitored by someone else.

In mid-Jascii117ly, Dascii117tch Information Technology company DigiNotars systems were hacked and secascii117rity certificates were stolen for a nascii117mber of domains, DigiNotar and its owner, ascii85.S.-listed VASCO Data Secascii117rity International, said on Aascii117gascii117st 30.

The stolen certificates were immediately revoked after detection of the theft bascii117t one, for the site Google.com, was only 'recently' revoked after a warning from the Dascii117tch government, DigiNotar and VASCO said.

Google, which alerted ascii117sers to the threat last week, recommended on Thascii117rsday that all ascii117sers in Iran follow a series of steps to protect themselves, inclascii117ding changing their Gmail passwords and verifying their accoascii117nt recovery options.

2011-09-10 01:14:43