Google Issued Over 12,000 Government Attack Warnings in Three Months

Google has released statistics revealing how often it warns users that they have attracted the attention of “government-backed hackers.” Most of these warnings were sent to users in the United States, South Korea, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

Currently, Google tracks more than 270 government-supported hacker groups from over 50 countries worldwide. These groups are involved in intelligence gathering, intellectual property theft, cyberattacks, targeting dissidents, journalists, and activists, or coordinating the spread of disinformation.

From July to September 2019 alone, Google sent over 12,000 warnings to users in 149 countries, alerting them to email attacks from “government-backed” hacking groups.

According to Google, the number of warnings sent in this three-month period fluctuates by about 10% compared to the same period in 2018 and 2017.

Google was the first major email provider to start showing such warnings to its users back in 2012. These are simple notifications for Gmail users, alerting them when Google detects that malicious emails linked to “government-backed” hackers have been sent to them. Such emails may contain links to download malware, malicious attachments, or links to phishing sites.

Sample Warning

Today, almost all major email providers, including Microsoft and Yahoo, display similar notifications to their customers. Last year, Google also expanded this functionality to G Suite users.

Interestingly, Google does not send these warnings immediately when users are under attack. Instead, the company accumulates messages and then sends them in batches to hundreds of accounts at once. This approach helps confuse attackers, making it harder for them to determine which of their tactics are working and to adjust their attacks in real time.