Google stored some users' passwords in plain text for years

Google has revealed it had left some business users' passwords exposed in plain text.

In a blog post on Tuesday, the tech giant said it had discovered the issue in Google's popular enterprise product, G Suite, back in January. 

When stored in a system, passwords are cryptographically hashed — scrambled into a random-looking assortment of numbers — which make it near-impossible to try and guess what it is. 

The bug, which had existed since 2005, stored an unhashed, plain text copy of the password in G Suite's administration console. The console had allowed administrators to reset a password for a user, in case they forgot it, but Google said the function no longer exists. Read more...