Re: Google Accounts Security Vulnerability

[Mike Hearn <hearn () google com>]

If you provide the name of the account you're logging in to, we can go
take a look what's happening.

On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Michael Gray <mgray () emitcode com> wrote:
> Regardless of how you say it works, I can bypass it every time it would
> seem. Again, by using the method in my original post. It's likely you have a
> bug if this isn't the functionality you're after.
>
> I appreciate the statistics but they mean little to me.
>
> Thank you for taking the time to respond. I hope my suggestions and findings
> will assist you in correcting these issues
>
> On May 17, 2012 5:51 AM, "Mike Hearn" <hearn () google com> wrote:
> > I understand your concerns, however they are not valid. You can be
> > assured of the following:
> >
> > 1) We do not see this system as a replacement for passwords. If we
> > block a login the user is notified and asked if it was them, if it
> > wasn't we ask them to pick a new password. In very high confidence
> > cases we will immediately force the user to choose a new password,
> > because passwords are still the first line of defense.
> >
> > 2) We do not see this system as a replacement for 2-factor
> > authentication. However the reality is that the vast majority of our
> > users do not use 2-factor authentication and this is unlikely to
> > change any time soon. 2SV imposes a significant extra burden on the
> > user such that despite heavy promotion many users refuse to sign up,
> > and of those that do, many choose to unenroll shortly afterwards.
> > Therefore we also provide this always-on best effort system as well.
> >
> > 3) In fact it is very effective at stopping the large, botnet driven
> > types of attacks we see on a daily basis and so saying it doesn't add
> > any security is wrong. Since going live the system has successfully
> > defended tens of millions of users who have a compromised password. A
> > single unrepresentative data point based on one account isn't enough
> > for you to judge the utility of the system, whereas we can clearly see
> > the stopped campaigns (and drop in number of attempts).
> >
> > That said, if you have friends and relatives who use Google and you'd
> > like to to make them more secure, by all means encourage them to set
> > up two-factor authentication.



-- 

Mike Hearn | Senior Software Engineer | hearn () google com | Account security team

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