Google to warn users of
'state-sponsored attacks'
By Brendan Sasso - 06/05/12 04:02 PM ET
Google announced Tuesday
that it will warn users if it suspects they are the target of a state-sponsored
cyberattack.
The Web company will
display a message at the top of its page reading: "Warning: We believe
state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or
computer."
"You might ask how we
know this activity is state-sponsored," Eric Gross, Google's vice
president of security engineering, wrote in a blog post. "We can’t go into
the details without giving away information that would be helpful to these bad
actors, but our detailed analysis — as well as victim reports — strongly
suggest the involvement of states or groups that are state-sponsored."
Gross said when Google has
"clear warning signs" about hackers, the company puts in place
"extra roadblocks to thwart these bad actors."
He said the warning does
not mean that a person's email account has been hijacked, but it does mean that
Google suspects government actors have targeted the account.
He encouraged users to
take extra steps to protect their information, such as using strong passwords
and enabling two-step verification.
According to Foreign
Policy magazine, which first reported the news, the warning system will make it
more difficult for authoritarian regimes to hack into the private
communications of activists.
The magazine reported that
the warning system is not aimed at any particular country and that Google has
no plans to release data on which countries hack into their citizens' emails
the most frequently.
But the move comes amid
tensions between Google and the Chinese government.
Last week, Google
announced that it would begin alerting Chinese users when they enter search
terms that might draw the attention of Chinese censors.
Although the company was
careful not to explicitly blame the Chinese government, it noted that users
regularly receive error messages when they search for certain politically
sensitive terms.
In 2010, Google stopped
censoring search terms on its Chinese site and moved much of its Chinese
operations to Hong Kong, Foreign Policy noted.
That move followed a
series attacks, widely believed to be the work of the Chinese government, on
the Gmail accounts of human rights activists.
–Updated at 4:25 p.m.
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