Google says it has seen a drop in the number of warnings sent for potential government-backed phishing or malware attempts last year, mainly due to improved protection systems.
For several years, the company has been alerting users when identifying accounts that appear to be targeted by state-sponsored attackers, and in 2019 it sent nearly 40,000 such warnings. The number, however, represents a 25% decline compared to 2018.
“One reason for this decline is that our new protections are working—attackers' efforts have been slowed down and they’re more deliberate in their attempts, meaning attempts are happening less frequently as attackers adapt,” Google says.
The countries targeted the most in 2019 include the United States, South Korea, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, each with more than 1,000 targeted users.
In recent months, the Internet giant observed an increase in the number of attackers who impersonate news outlets or journalists, and says that even adversaries from Iran and North Korea are adopting this tactic.
The threat actors would impersonate a journalist to seed false stories with other reporters and spread disinformation, or would send benign emails to build trust with a journalist or foreign policy expert, and then send a malicious attachment, Google notes.
Foreign policy experts are often targeted by state-sponsored threat actors for their research, for access to organizations, or to connect with researchers or policymakers for subsequent attacks. Government-backed attackers mainly focus on geopolitical rivals, government officials, journalists, dissidents and activists.
According to Google, targeted accounts are usually hit multiple times, and this has happened to one in five accounts that received warnings in 2019. The attackers launch multiple attempts using different lures and accounts, or try to compromi ..
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