Faced with cyber attacks fueled by AI, Google wishes to replace passwords with access keys, deemed more secure, for connection to the Gmail accounts.
Google responds to AI attacks on Gmail
The end of 2024 of the Google company was marked by a series of cyber attacks thanks to the AI, aimed at 2.5 billion users. The scammers pretend to be Google's assistance service by sending an email to a person with a Gmail account, which stipulates to validate an account recovery attempt, reports Sam Mitrovic, consultant in Microsoft solutions.
He continues by explaining that if their email has no answer, hackers use a telephone call that imitates Google customer service, with a human voice generated by an AI. The goal is to access user accounts, and thus be able to steal their personal information. A threat necessarily taken seriously by the American giant, who decided to review his connection system.
The importance of deleting passwords
In 2023, the American company had started using access keys, even if the use of certain devices still requires a password. Authentication with two factors, also called double authentication, allows accounts that connect with a password to be better protected.
However, Google, like Microsoft and its Outlook messaging, found that even if there was the presence of access keys, it was absolutely necessary to delete passwords, because they remain an entry door for the potential cyberattacs of hackers, according to Forbes.
Access key vs password
The objective is to definitively replace passwords with access keys, it is interesting to see what they have different with passwords. On the one hand, the site Keeper Indicates that unlike passwords that are chosen by the user, the access keys are automatically generated using public key cryptography. But the biggest difference remains their safety. The access keys have the particularity of resisting phishing, a form of scam on the internet.
“The access keys not only offer an improved user experience by allowing you to connect more quickly with your face, your fingerprint or your PIN code, but they are not sensitive to the same types of attacks as passwords,” said Microsoft last December. However, these access keys have limits, as they are not yet supported on all websites.
Source: Forbes
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