users, Google identified and warned over 12,000 of its users who
were targeted by a government-backed hacking attempt in the third
quarter of this year.
According to a report[1] published by Google’s
Threat Analysis Group (TAG), more than 90 percent of the targeted
users were hit with “credential phishing
emails[2]” that tried to trick
victims into handing over access to their Google account.
Google’s TAG tracks over 270 government-backed hacking groups
from over 50 countries that are involved in intelligence
collection, stealing intellectual property, destructive cyber
attacks, targeting dissidents, journalists, and activists, or
spreading coordinated disinformation.
The alerts were sent to targeted users between July and September
2019, which is consistent within a +/-10 percent range of the
number of phishing email warnings sent in the same period of 2018
and 2017, the company said.
These warnings usually get sent to the potential targets, which
generally are activists, journalists, policy-makers, and
politicians. However, if you have received any such alert, do not
freak out straight away — it doesn’t necessarily mean that your
Google account has been compromised.
to your Google account using phishing, malware, or another method,
and you should take a few extra steps to secure your account.
“We encourage high-risk users—like journalists, human rights
activists, and political campaigns—to enroll in our Advanced
Protection Program (APP), which utilizes hardware security keys and
provides the strongest protections available against phishing and
account hijackings. APP is designed specifically for the
highest-risk accounts,” Google said.
affected users in 149 countries, the United States, Pakistan, South
Korea, and Vietnam being the most heavily targeted ones, according
to the map shared by Google.
Google has been warning individual Google account users since
2012 if the company believes government-backed hackers are
targeting their account via phishing, malware, or some other
tactics.
Just last year, Google also started offering these email attack
alerts to G Suite administrators so they can take action to protect
their users and so their organization as well.
High-risk users can take some necessary security
measures that will help prevent compromise of their accounts,
including keeping their apps and software up-to-date and enabling
2-step verification
(Google recommends its Authenticator app or
a Security Key as
the best methods than regular old text message).
[3][4][5][6]
References
- ^
report
(blog.google) - ^
credential phishing emails
(thehackernews.com) - ^
necessary security measures
(thehackernews.com) - ^
2-step verification
(support.google.com) - ^
Authenticator app
(support.google.com) - ^
Security Key
(thehackernews.com)
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