Here we go again! Google has apparently issued email warnings to certain people that they might be prone to a state-sponsored hack attack trying to break into their account.
The notorious and chilling alert reads: “Government-backed attackers may be trying to steal your password.”
The reference is certainly towards the Russian Government, which has been suspected in the past as well to be lurking in our midst and trying to eavesdrop on our sensitive data.
Before this, Google issued a similar warning back in 2012, and in March, the technology giant released a full page warning to some users that were in danger.
Lovely.
(not a phishing email, alert popped up on my actual Gmail account) pic.twitter.com/c7zdxKfXRr— Aric Toler (@AricToler) October 11, 2016
But don’t worry, ordinary citizens like you and me are probably not in the firing zone. It seems as though the sophisticated hackers are only trying to break into accounts of a mere 0.1% of users consisting of activists, journalists and policy-makers.
A Google spokesperson spoke on the situation and advised to be alert but not alarmed,
“We send these warnings out of an abundance of caution — they do not indicate that a user’s account has already been compromised or that a more widespread attack is occurring when they receive the notice. Anyone that receives one should follow the instructions in the warning, and we further recommend that all users routinely do a Google Account Security Checkup.”
Not this again! Dear Kremlin, please stop. pic.twitter.com/BxhMDvpncf
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) November 23, 2016
So you probably shouldn’t lose your night’s sleep over this. But it is always better to be safe than sorry, and we would advise you to protect your account and save yourself from any possible mishaps.