Google blocked an e-mail meant for Goldman Sachs on June 23. A contractor of Goldman Sachs unfortunately made a mistake of sending an important e-mail to a 'gmail.com' account instead of a 'gs.com' mail.
The e-mail is said to contain "highly confidential brokerage account information" as written in a complaint filed by Goldman in New York where it is also based. The error threatened a "needless and massive" breach of privacy that the bank is trying hard to fix right now.
Google has blocked the email already.
"Google complied with our request that it block access to the email," Goldman Sach's spokesperson Andrea Raphael said. According to Raphael, the email account had not been accessed, meaning there was no breach of client information yet.
This was an honest mistake by a contractor of Goldman who was testing some changes to the internal processes of the bank. The document has something to do with the requirements set by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Such information is very important and no one should be able to see it apart from Goldman Sachs. Sadly, the report was sent to a gmail.com accidentally that's why Goldman has asked Google to delete it.
Google acted on the issue immediately by blocking access to the email. However, Goldman is requesting to have it deleted but Google said on June 26 a court order is required. It was already kind to comply with the request as acted upon by Google's "incident response team" but what Goldman Sachs wants is have the email report totally deleted. Last week, the investment bank formally filed a request at the New York State Supreme Court.
"Emergency relief is necessary to avoid the risk of inflicting a needless and massive privacy violation upon Goldman Sachs' clients, and to avoid the risk of unnecessary reputational damage to Goldman Sachs," writes Goldman Sachs in the court filing.
The financial data is highly confidential so Goldman Sachs is determined to have it erased. No mention though how many clients were included in the report. No report has surfaced that a gmail.com account owner received the message in question either.
The company seems to be desperate with the request. Google has no problem with deleting an email but a court order is needed. Goldman Sachs added that Google "appears willing to cooperate" but only with that piece of paper.
To date, the bank has not gotten in touch with the false recipient or has not received the said report.
