Google Workspace | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

You don't need a rogue employee to suffer a breach. All it takes is a free trial that someone forgot to cancel. An AI-powered note-taker quietly syncing with your Google Drive. A personal Gmail account tied to a business-critical tool. That's shadow IT. And today, it's not just about unsanctioned apps, but also dormant accounts, unmanaged identities, over-permissioned SaaS tools, and orphaned access. Most of it slips past even the most mature security solutions. Think your CASB or IdP covers this? It doesn't. They weren't built to catch what's happening inside SaaS: OAuth sprawl, shadow admins, GenAI access, or apps created directly in platforms like Google Workspace or Slack. Shadow IT is no longer a visibility issue - it's a full-blown attack surface. Wing Security helps security teams uncover these risks before they become incidents.  Here are 5 real-world examples of shadow IT that could be quietly bleeding your data. 1. Dormant acces...

Traditional data leakage prevention (DLP) tools aren't keeping pace with the realities of how modern businesses use SaaS applications. Companies today rely heavily on SaaS platforms like Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack, and generative AI tools, significantly altering the way sensitive information is handled. In these environments, data rarely appears as traditional files or crosses networks in ways endpoint or network-based DLP tools can monitor. Yet, most companies continue using legacy DLP systems, leaving critical security gaps. A new white paper, Rethinking DLP For The SaaS Era: Why Browser-Centric DLP is the New Mandate , identifies precisely why current DLP methods struggle to secure modern SaaS-driven workflows. It also explores how browser-native security addresses these gaps by focusing security efforts exactly where user interactions occur, in the browser. Why Traditional DLP Tools Fall Short Traditional DLP solutions were built for a simpler time when sensitive...

Let's be honest: if you're one of the first (or the first) security hires at a small or midsize business, chances are you're also the unofficial CISO, SOC, IT Help Desk, and whatever additional roles need filling. You're not running a security department. You are THE security department. You're getting pinged about RFPs in one area, and reviewing phishing alerts in another, all while sifting through endless FP alerts across the board. The tools meant to help are often creating more work than they solve. Security teams end up choosing between letting things slip or becoming the "Department of No." Chances are you inherited your company's Google Workspace. Thankfully, Google handles the infrastructure, the uptime, and the spam filtering. But while Google takes care of a lot, it doesn't cover everything, and it can be difficult for security teams to operationalize all of Google's underlying capabilities without significant engineering work. It's your job to se...

On the 21st birthday of Gmail , Google has announced a major update that allows enterprise users to send end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) to any user in any email inbox in a few clicks. The feature is rolling out starting today in beta, allowing users to send E2EE emails to Gmail users within an organization, with plans to send E2EE emails to any Gmail inbox in the coming weeks and to any email inbox later this year. What makes the new encryption model – an alternative to the Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions ( S/MIME ) protocol – stand out is that it eliminates the need for senders or recipients to use custom software or exchange encryption certificates. "This capability, requiring minimal efforts for both IT teams and end users, abstracts away the traditional IT complexity and substandard user experiences of existing solutions, while preserving enhanced data sovereignty, privacy, and security controls," Google Workspace's Johney Burke and Julien Duplant said...

The Need For Unified Security Google Workspace is where teams collaborate, share ideas, and get work done. But while it makes work easier, it also creates new security challenges. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving, finding ways to exploit misconfigurations, steal sensitive data, and hijack user accounts. Many organizations try to secure their environment by piecing together different security tools, hoping that multiple layers of protection will keep them safe.  But in reality, this patchwork approach often creates blind spots, making it harder—not easier—to defend against threats. To truly secure Google Workspace, businesses need a unified security strategy that offers complete protection without unnecessary complexity. The problem with most security solutions is that they only solve part of the puzzle. Point solutions, like tools that block malware or phishing attacks, might work well for a specific type of threat but fail to recognize suspicious user behavior, unauthori...

For decades, Microsoft Exchange has been the backbone of business communications, powering emailing, scheduling and collaboration for organizations worldwide. Whether deployed on-premises or in hybrid environments, companies of all sizes rely on Exchange for seamless internal and external communication, often integrating it deeply with their workflows, compliance policies and security frameworks. However, Microsoft has officially announced that support for Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019 will end on October 14, 2025. While this may seem like a distant concern, businesses and IT teams must start preparing now. The end of support means that Microsoft will no longer provide security patches, bug fixes or technical support, leaving organizations running on these versions exposed to security vulnerabilities, compliance risks and potential operational disruptions. So, what should businesses do now? In this article, we'll explore the impact of Microsoft's decision, the risks...

The modern workplace has undergone a seismic transformation over recent years, with hybrid work becoming the norm and businesses rapidly adopting cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications to facilitate it. SaaS applications like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace have now become the backbone of business operations, enabling seamless collaboration and productivity. However, this dependence on SaaS solutions has also attracted a surge in cyberthreats, exposing critical business data to risks like ransomware and phishing attacks.  Amid these challenges, the 2025 State of SaaS Backup and Recovery Report offers a timely analysis of the SaaS data protection landscape. By surveying over 3,700 IT professionals from diverse industries and company sizes, this report highlights trends, challenges and solutions shaping the future of SaaS data resilience. For organizations seeking clarity in navigating these turbulent waters, the findings provide invaluable guidance. Key revelat...

Google Workspace has quickly become the productivity backbone for businesses worldwide, offering an all-in-one suite with email, cloud storage and collaboration tools. This single-platform approach makes it easy for teams to connect and work efficiently, no matter where they are, enabling seamless digital transformation that's both scalable and adaptable. As companies shift from traditional, on-premises setups focused on device security, to more user-centered, hybrid models, Google Workspace is perfectly positioned to support this evolution. Now, the user account itself is the central hub, allowing access from any device or location — a game changer in today's remote and distributed work environments. However, with all this connectivity and flexibility comes a challenge. Google Workspace connects to countless apps and touches every user in the organization, making it an appealing target for cybercriminals. The platform's internet accessibility opens up additional entry points, raisi...

When you connect your organization's Google Drive account to ChatGPT, you grant ChatGPT extensive permissions for not only your personal files, but resources across your entire shared drive. As you might imagine, this introduces an array of cybersecurity challenges. This post outlines how to see ChatGPT activity natively in the Google Workspace admin console, and how Nudge Security can provide full visibility into all genAI integrations. Since launching ChatGPT in 2022, OpenAI has defied expectations with a steady stream of product announcements and enhancements. One such announcement came on May 16, 2024, and for most consumers, it probably felt innocuous. Titled  "Improvements to data analysis in ChatGPT," the post outlines how users can add files directly from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. It's worth mentioning that other genAI tools like Google AI Studio and Claude Enterprise have also added similar capabilities recently. Pretty great, right? Maybe.‍ When you co...

Google's  Gemini  large language model (LLM) is susceptible to security threats that could cause it to divulge system prompts, generate harmful content, and carry out indirect injection attacks. The findings come from HiddenLayer, which said the issues impact consumers using Gemini Advanced with Google Workspace as well as companies using the LLM API. The first vulnerability involves getting around security guardrails to leak the system prompts (or a system message), which are designed to set conversation-wide instructions to the LLM to help it generate more useful responses, by asking the model to output its "foundational instructions" in a markdown block. "A system message can be used to inform the LLM about the context," Microsoft  notes  in its documentation about LLM prompt engineering. "The context may be the type of conversation it is engaging in, or the function it is supposed to perform. It helps the LLM generate more appropriate responses....