A phishing expedition

GOOGLE struggled to protect users from an “especially nefarious” online attack yesterday that infiltrated accounts and may have stolen passwords, confidential correspondence and credit card details.

The technology giant took two hours to shut down the malicious “phishing” attack on users, and internet security experts warned they should brace for “copycats” attempting to repeat the successful break-in.

Google warned users about the attack on social media but took two hours to inform them it had “disabled offending accounts”.