Google Gmail Glitch Outages Caused By Failure To Update Security Certificate

Google Inc. experienced glitches over the weekend with its messaging service. The error prevented new users from setting up and sending emails via Gmail or Google Apps.

Gmail users were shown error messages when they attempted to add their emails or a new account to an email client, VentureBeat reports. The disruption in service was caused by an expired certificate. Therefore, when users tried to send emails, the server warned of phishing and security risks. The error -- an inability of Google to keep their system updated with a new certificate -- faced criticism from users via Twitter.

The #SSL cert that signed http://t.co/oXCyzvwWkq has expired :) Classic.
- Martin Koch ∆ndersen (@925dk) April 4, 2015

Google let the intermediate SSL cert for http://t.co/0PTa9PZ4Fg expire. Thats kind of a big oops.
- Adam Becevello (@adambecevello) April 4, 2015

The fact that iOS Mail and other apps ignore these kinds of SSL certificate errors is even more troubling. #Gmail
- Javier Soltero (@jsoltero) April 4, 2015

Google acknowledged the error at 1:21 p.m. April 4 via its App Status Dashboard, a page that provides performance information on Google’s apps and services. Google updated the state of its investigation by 2 p.m. and confirmed the errors were due to an invalid certification by 3 p.m. The problem was resolved over two hours after it was first reported by the Google team.

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