Following news this morning that Google opted not to disclose to users its discovery of a bug that gave outside developers access to private data, and have subsequently announced they will shut down the Google+ platform, cybersecurity CEOs commented -
Pravin Kothari, CEO of CipherCloud, said: “Google’s unofficial motto has long been ‘don’t be evil.’ Alphabet, the Google parent company, adapted this to ‘do the right thing.’
Google’s failure, if true, to not disclose to users the discovery of a bug that gave outside developers access to private data, is a reoccurring theme. We saw recently that Uber was fined for failing to disclose the fact that they had a breach, and instead of disclosing, tried to sweep it under the rug.
It’s not surprising that companies that rely on user data are incented to avoid disclosing to the public that their data may have been compromised, which would impact consumer trust. These are the reasons that the government should and will continue to use in their inexorable march to a unified national data privacy omnibus regulation.
Trust and the cloud do not go together until responsibility is taken for locking down and securing our own data. Even if your cloud offers the ability to enforce data protection and threat protection, it is not their data that is compromised and potentially used against them, it is the consumers.
Enterprises leveraging cloud services need to ensure additional security measures and data is protected before it is delivered to a third-party cloud service - this is the only way we can ensure data is protected.”
Colin Bastable, CEO of Lucy Security, added; “Don’t be Evil mutated into Don’t be Caught. Google’s understandable desire to hide their embarrassment from regulators and users is the reason why states and the feds impose disclosure requirements – the knock-on effects of security breaches are immense.
The risk of such a security issue is shared by all of the Google users' employers, banks, spouses, colleagues, etc. But I guess we can trust them when we are told there was no problem.”