Google disclosed to have warned around 14,000 Gmail users on Wednesday that nation-state hacker group from APT28 had targeted them.
- All the phishing emails from the Fancy Bear campaign were blocked by Gmail and did not land in the users’ inboxes as they were automatically classified as spam.
- The group is typically engaged in data theft and espionage activity.
- The group is typically engaged in data theft and espionage activity.
Google disclosed to have warned around 14,000 Gmail users on Wednesday that nation-state hacker group from APT28 had targeted them.
Shane Huntley, the Threat Analysis Group (TAG) head, wrote on Twitter that his group had sent an above-average batch of government-backed security warnings.
The researchers pointed out that the warning is related to hacking attempts and that not all the attacks have been successful, also thanks to the defence implemented by Google.
“These warnings indicate targeting NOT compromise. If we are warning you, there’s a very high chance we blocked,” Huntley wrote in a thread on Thursday. “The increased numbers this month come from a small number of widely targeted campaigns which were blocked.”
A spike in the number of attacks was observed in late September; Threat Analysis Group researchers discovered an APT28 phishing campaign targeting nearly 14,000 Gmail users across multiple businesses.
The APT28 group (aka Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit, and STRONTIUM) has been active since at least 2007 and it has targeted governments, militaries, and security organizations worldwide.
“If you are an activist/journalist/government official or work in NatSec, this warning honestly shouldn’t be a surprise, ” added Huntley. “At some point, some government-backed entity probably will try to send you something,” he said while urging users to review account security settings.
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