+ - Google Warning Gmail Users About State-Sponsored Attacks ->
Submitted
by
Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes "Google, whose users have been frequent targets of suspected attacks by foreign governments, is deploying a new warning system for users who may be victims of those kinds of attacks. The new system is in addition to existing warnings that Google will show Gmail users when their accounts may have been accessed by attackers.
Gmail users have been on the receiving end of a number of known attacks, including the infamous Google Aurora attack that has been blamed on China. Part of that operation was aimed at a specific subset of Gmail users, including Chinese dissidents and journalists. Now, Google says it will warn users about exactly the kind of activity that resulted in that compromise. The company says it always is looking for potentially state-sponsored attacks on its own networks and will provide users with the benefit of that monitoring.
The ability for Google to show this kind of warning to users obviously means that the company has the capability to identify attacks that it believes are coming from foreign governments--or their hired guns. Identifying attackers by their source IP address is a notoriously inaccurate method and even that basic method would only provide a general geographic location and no information on the attacker's intent or affiliation. Google could be using that as a starting point, however, and extending it to include the identification of traffic from known-bad IP blocks."
Link to Original Source
Gmail users have been on the receiving end of a number of known attacks, including the infamous Google Aurora attack that has been blamed on China. Part of that operation was aimed at a specific subset of Gmail users, including Chinese dissidents and journalists. Now, Google says it will warn users about exactly the kind of activity that resulted in that compromise. The company says it always is looking for potentially state-sponsored attacks on its own networks and will provide users with the benefit of that monitoring.
The ability for Google to show this kind of warning to users obviously means that the company has the capability to identify attacks that it believes are coming from foreign governments--or their hired guns. Identifying attackers by their source IP address is a notoriously inaccurate method and even that basic method would only provide a general geographic location and no information on the attacker's intent or affiliation. Google could be using that as a starting point, however, and extending it to include the identification of traffic from known-bad IP blocks."
Link to Original Source
Google Warning Gmail Users About State-Sponsored Attacks More Login
Google Warning Gmail Users About State-Sponsored Attacks