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Google outage tied to authentication system outage, not supply chain attacks

“Google Headquarters” Google patched two zero days for Chrome. (Originally appeared on Flickr by brionv/CC BY 2.0)
Google applications were offline Monday morning due to an authentication system outage. (Originally appeared on Flickr by brionv/CC BY 2.0)

A number of Google applications were offline Monday morning due to an authentication system outage, the technology giant confirmed.

The outage Monday morning caused a stir among security experts, wondering whether the incident might have ties to a major hacking event over the weekend that resulted in breaches at both the Treasury and Commerce departments.

Google released a statement confirming the authentication system outage for approximately 45 minutes due to an internal storage quota issue.

Based on published reports, users could not access YouTube, Google Doc or Gmail for the better part of an hour.

According to the statement, services requiring users to log in experienced high error rates during the period. Google said the authentication system issue was resolved at 4:32 a.m. Pacific time (7:32 a.m. Eastern) and that all services had been restored.

The company apologized for the outage and confirmed plans to conduct a thorough follow-up review to ensure the problem does not recur.

Here’s the full text of the statement:

“Today, at 3.47AM PT Google experienced an authentication system outage for approximately 45 minutes due to an internal storage quota issue. Services requiring users to log in experienced high error rates during this period. The authentication system issue was resolved at 4:32AM PT. All services are now restored. We apologize to everyone affected, and we will conduct a thorough follow up review to ensure this problem cannot recur in the future.”   Google Spokesperson. 

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