Google has notified more than 14,000 Gmail users via email that they have been targeted by a spear phishing attack orchestrated by a state-sponsored hacking group. https://twitter.com/nuclearkatie/status/1445865269897924609
Shane Huntley, Director of the Threat Analysis Group at Google
These warnings indicate that we are a target, not a danger. The fact that we are issuing warnings means that there is a very high probability that you are being blocked.
If you are an activist, journalist, government official, or work for the National Security Agency, this warning should not come as a surprise.
At some point, a government-backed organization will probably send you something
and commented that they recommend users to review their account security settings.
Google’s security department stated that they have blocked all emails sent by the APT28 group in this attack.
APT28 is known to be the group that the FBI and NSA have associated with Russian military intelligence in the summer of 2021, specifically with Unit 26165 of the 85th Main Special Service Center (GTsSS) of the Russian General Staff’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), which is known as the “Fancy Bear”.
APT28 is one of the most active threat companies in the past decade, and uses spear phishing emails heavily to target interested targets.
The purpose of this is to access sensitive documents and communications to access other individuals and internal networks.
Warned or at-risk users, journalists, politicians, celebrities, and CEOs are encouraged to sign up for the Advanced Protection Program for work and personal email. Advanced Protection Program for professional and personal email
https://landing.google.com/ advancedprotection/
The advanced protection program protects users and sensitive information at high risk of targeted online attacks. New protections are automatically added to keep up with a wide range of the latest threats.
The warning announced is not a new feature of Gmail; Google has been warning about state-sponsored attacks since 2012.
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