Indian users target of ‘state-backed’ attackers: Google

Representative photo: AFP
NEW DELHI: Google notified between 51 to 100 users in India that their accounts were being targeted by “statesponsored” attackers in April, the technology giant said in a blog releassed late on Wednesday. The post did not specify if the users were targeted by their own government or others. Globally, Google sent out 1,755 warnings to users whose accounts were targets of government-backed attackers in April.

Google also stated that it would now release this information in quarterly bulletins. Last November, Google had warned at least 500 Indians about “governmentbacked” phishing attacks against them between July and September 2019. According to Google’s Threat Analysis Group, the company also terminated 3 advertising accounts, 1 AdSense account, and 11 YouTube channels as part of their actions against a coordinated influence operation linked to India. “The campaign was sharing messages in English supportive of Qa tar,” it stated.

The company said it detected phishing attempts from India, where attackers used gmail accounts to send out mails that appeared to be coming from the WHO but were trying to grab users’ login credentials.