Google warns users of 33,000 Nation-State sponsored attacks in 2020 and the DDoS attack that targeted in 2017 was the most massive DDoS attack.
Google warns users of 33,000 Nation-State sponsored attacks in 2020 and the DDoS attack that targeted in 2017 was the most massive DDoS attack.
Shane Huntley, Director at Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), disclosed that her crew had shared its findings with the campaigns and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Google sent 33,015 government-backed phishing warnings in 2020 until now with 11,856 alerts sent during Q1 2020, 11,023 alerts in Q2 2020 and 10,136 in Q3 2020.
According to the I.T., giant major incidents like elections and COVID-19 represent opportunities for threat actors.
“Overall, we’ve seen increased attention on the threats posed by APTs in the context of the U.S. election. U.S. government agencies have warned about different threat actors, and we’ve worked closely with those agencies and others in the tech industry to share leads and intelligence about what we’re seeing across the ecosystem.” reads the report published by Google TAG.
Since last summer, the TAG team has tracked a large spam network linked to China that is running an influence operation on multiple platforms, primarily on YouTube. The threat actor behind this campaign was mainly hijacking existing accounts and using them to spread content crafted for their objective.
Last month, Microsoft also reported that it observed nation state-sponsored hacking groups operating from Russia, China, and Iran actively targeting individuals and organizations involved in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections.
"We have directly notified those who were targeted or compromised so they can take action to protect themselves," Microsoft said at the time.
According to Google, the alerts are shown to up to 0.1% of all Gmail users. The company’s warning advises Gmail users to take several measures to protect their accounts, such as by enrolling in the Advanced Protection Program, enabling Gmail 2-step verification, keeping software up to date, as well as using Google Authenticator or a physical security key for 2-step verification.
As the course of the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, Google experts warn of threat actors developing their tactics as well. Google observed North Koren APTs targeting pharmaceutical companies and researchers involved in the development of a vaccine.
This week, Google revealed that in September 2017, it had mitigated a DDoS attack that reached 2.54 Tbps, targeting thousands of Google I.P. addresses.
This attack is the largest DDoS attack recorded to date, and according to a report published by the Google Threat Threat Analysis Group (TAG) it was carried out by a state-sponsored threat actor.
For the latest cyber threats and the latest hacking news please follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.
You may be interested in reading: How to Survive the COVID Time Cyber Security Threats?