Once a hacker has taken over one of your accounts, they will have full access to the account’s Google Chat history. ![]() Once someone has taken over one of your accounts, they can access private data, send lateral phishing emails, steal personally identifiable information, and generally cause a great deal of harm. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t see this as a problem.īut, it is a problem when you’re the one responsible for protecting students!Īccount takeovers are a problem that can have widespread repercussions. It’s unusual because Google apps security in general doesn’t allow for unauthorized access to images. Users who have discovered this security issue have brought it to Google’s attention. Anyone who knows about the structure of URLs (such as cybercriminals) could easily find, download, and use an image sent via Google Chat. When a user shares an image on Chat, it is stored using a publicly assessable URL. Unfortunately, Google’s native Chat security doesn’t just not address this issue, it actually makes it worse. So, it’s a pretty safe bet that students, and even faculty and staff, could share an image on Chat that they wouldn’t want anyone else to access. After all, why would anyone be interested in what they’re saying to their friends? They forget that cybercriminals would be delighted to access sensitive information and use it against them. Sensitive image access risksĭo students, faculty, and/or staff share sensitive images in Google Chat? Sensitive images could include images of a sexual nature ( used in sextortion), images of credit cards, and images of people’s personal spaces, addresses, etc.Ī chat app is a very informal way to communicate, and it’s easy for users to forget they need to be cautious. Given the fairly lax security Google currently provides, savvy district IT leaders question: how secure is Google Chat? There are four significant Google Chat security risks that you need to consider for your district. Google Chat monitoring is something all school districts need to do to secure sensitive information that may be shared over Chat for FERPA, HIPAA, and other compliance reasons. Using that approach, even if someone gains access to the chats on your system, they can’t read the content. More secure chat apps use end-to-end encryption, which encrypts data during storage as well as in-transit. However, Google doesn’t encrypt messages during storage, which makes them vulnerable to attacks by cybercriminals. Google Chat uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to protect messages as they are transported from one user to another. This includes implementing G Suite security best practices in Google Chat, as well as Gmail, Google Drive, Shared Drives, Google Meet, and Google Classroom.Įncrypting chat messages is important to ensure that hackers can’t access the information shared on messaging apps like Google Chat. It’s important to properly configure G Suite data loss prevention controls across your entire domain. ![]() How Secure is Native Google Chat Security? But distinct IT and safety teams need to understand that there significant data security and student safety risks that make Google Chat security & safety monitoring a requirement. Using it also helps keep all communication together in one app for security, monitoring, and compliance. But, it’s free to school districts using G Suite for Education. Google Chat is not the most secure messaging app available on the market. How secure is Google Chat? School districts have to take unique cyber safety & security risks into consideration when making Google Chat-or any technology, for that matter-available for use. This capability has become even more important in today’s K-12 remote learning and working environment.īut the question remains. Many districts are struggling with the question: how secure is Google Chat? The education community has found that Google Chat is an excellent way for students to communicate with teachers, and for faculty and staff to communicate with each other. ![]() ![]() How secure is Google Chat for K-12 cyber safety & security risks?
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