Egypt: Reports of widespread breaches of Gmail accounts despite Google's denial.

                         Waltz used his personal email for official correspondence             

Egypt: Reports of widespread breaches of Gmail accounts despite Google's denial.

Despite Google's denial of any breaches of Gmail user accounts in recent days, complaints continue to mount regarding hacking and the theft of passwords for applications linked to the app in Egypt.

The company denied reports that it had sent urgent warnings to its email service's more than 2.5 billion users to change their passwords, claiming the service had been subjected to widespread breaches. It confirmed that its security systems are capable of repelling more than 99.9 percent of phishing and malware attempts.

Cybersecurity experts stated that the attacks occurred recently, originating in countries in Europe and Southeast Asia, and lasted for approximately four days. During this period, Google sent warnings to a large number of users. Cybersecurity and artificial intelligence expert Ahmed Abdel Fattah said that the global company sent messages to a large number of users regarding unsafe logins to their accounts from new devices, some of which are outside of established access control systems.

He explained that these breaches have sparked panic, especially among Egyptian users who are unfamiliar with technology and some who are ignorant of security methods. This leaves their money and lives vulnerable to theft. He added, "Some users in Egypt link their bank accounts to their Google accounts, as well as their personal accounts on electronic payment and financial transaction applications such as Fawry and InstaPay. If their Gmail accounts are stolen, their money is immediately in the hands of others."

The expert pointed out that Google's denial of such breaches is controversial, as its statement claims there are no "widespread breaches," while the reality indicates that hacking operations have occurred, and these operations are truly significant and noteworthy. He continued, "Does it take a billion user accounts to be hacked for Google to see that the hacking was widespread? It's enough for a large number of users, even 100,000, to be hacked for the company to realize that it has a flaw in its systems that must be addressed."

He emphasized that Egyptians were not the only ones affected by this crisis, although it will have a significant impact on them. The hacks occurred worldwide, and many wrote to the company, while others took to social media to ask about the best solutions to confront the hacking of their accounts. For his part, Islam Mahdawi, a former Google Middle East expert, said that the company has strong capabilities and systems capable of confronting any large-scale hacking attempts and surviving with minimal losses, if any losses occur at all.

According to his statements, the company's denial of widespread hacking does not negate the occurrence of hacking or piracy of some Gmail users' accounts. However, Google's view of widespread hacking always differs from that of experts, as it is more comprehensive. Regarding the regions from which the hacks occurred, he said they originated in Central European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia, as well as Asian countries such as China and India. However, the hacks in Egypt primarily originated in Poland and Slovenia.

The former Google expert for the Middle East and North Africa recommended that all Gmail users activate security measures such as two-factor authentication and use passkeys as a secure alternative to traditional passwords. As for users with average education, Mahdawi urged them to be aware, through messages from Google, of various fraudulent methods and signs of hacking, to avoid falling victim and to report such attacks.