Google Webmaster Tools Security Breach Fixed

Nov 28, 2012 - 9:08 am 4 by

Google Webmaster Tools Security BreachLast night, there was a pretty significant security breach giving unauthorized access to your Google Webmaster Tools. Google has fixed the security issue this morning but not after it being an issue for probably about 12 hours.

@patrickaltoft pinged me about this last night on Twitter but I didn't see the issue myself in Google Webmaster Tools. Plus I didn't see any other complaints about it in the Google Webmaster forums. But State Of Search blog and David Naylor saw it and documented the issue. We later covered it at Search Engine Land after not hearing back from Google about the issue.

This morning, Google sent us a statement saying:

For several hours yesterday a small set of Webmaster Tools accounts were incorrectly re-verified for people who previously had access. We've reverted these accounts and are investigating ways to prevent this issue from recurring.

It is unclear if any damage was done over that 12 hour period but for some, it was incredibly nerve racking knowing that some people may have unauthorized access to your Webmaster Tools account and do some serious damage to your site in Google.

Here is a screen shot from David Naylor showing the unauthorized access:

click for full size

This morning I spotted only a couple threads with complaints about the issue.

Did any damage happen to your site's due to this?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google News

Google Won't Be Broken Up In Monopoly Case But Required To Share Search Data

Sep 2, 2025 - 5:50 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 2, 2025

Sep 2, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

September 2025 Google Webmaster Report

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

New Google Ads Checkboxes To Filter Campaigns

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads AI Max Not Designed To Go More Aggressively After SPN Inventory

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Search Google Maps For Location Assets

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:21 am
 
Previous Story: Tons Of "Not Selected" In Google Index Status?