Republished on June 6 with a new warning into surging password attacks.

Your email is under attack. You know this, of course, but Google just confirmed that 61% of email users have been targeted by attacks. If that sounds alarming, the situation with text messaging is even worse, hitting almost all American phone users.

Google also warns that more than 60% of U.S. users saw “an increase in scams over the past year,” with more than half “personally experiencing a data breach.” While these numbers are “far from surprising,” Google says, what is surprising is that almost all users are yet to upgrade their accounts to make them safer and more secure.

Most users, Google says, “still rely on older sign-in methods like passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA),” despite the push to upgrade accounts to passkeys as well as social sign-ins, which use authenticated platforms like “Sign in with Google.”

The situation is slightly more promising with younger users. “Digitally-native Gen Z users are bypassing outdated security norms like passwords, opting for more advanced authentication tools.” Google says this generation is “more reliant on passkeys or social sign-ins,” albeit they’re also more likely to reuse and less likely to change passwords.

Google warns “passwords are not only painful to maintain, but are also more prone to phishing and often leaked through data breaches.” And that’s the real issue. “It’s important to use tools that automatically secure your account and protect you from scams,” Google tells users, and that means upgrading account security now.