In a recent crisis, tech giant Google faced a major backlash after a critical outage in Google Chrome wiped out the passwords of approximately 15 million Windows users. The incident occurred on July 24-25 and affected a wide range of industries, including medical institutions, airlines, and banks.
According to a report from Forbes, the disruption was the result of a “change in product behavior” within Google Chrome, specifically affecting Google Password Manager, a tool relied on by more than three million users to store and autofill passwords. The issue was traced to the M127 version of the Chrome browser on Windows, which made previously saved passwords inaccessible and prevented new passwords from being saved, the report said.
For nearly 18 hours, affected users were unable to use their saved passwords, causing widespread inconvenience. Google recommended a temporary workaround using a command-line flag to bypass the issue. The issue was eventually resolved after Google released a fix, advising users to simply restart their browsers to restore functionality, the report said.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this service interruption or outage may have caused,” Google said in an official apology to those affected by the outage.
The incident has reportedly raised concerns about the reliability of online password managers. Many users rely on these tools for a wide range of activities, from work and healthcare to education and entertainment. This recent outage underscores the potential risks associated with relying solely on digital password storage solutions. Experts advise users to maintain backup plans and be careful with sensitive information stored online.
As the world continues to recover from the fallout from the recent Crowdstrike update issue that crippled countless businesses worldwide, this incident highlights the vulnerabilities in our increasingly digital lives.
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Published: Jul 29, 2024, 10:58 PM IST