Google’s been hacked, are you safe?
Posted by Omri Benhaim on Thu, Jun 09, 2011
In the past few months most of us have been coming to terms with the fact that our private information has been accessed by hackers. First the PS3 network was breached and now the Google network has been compromised. Now that Google can’t ward off hackers it is safe to say that the recent cyber attacks have reached a turning point. Google has announced that the hackers originated from Jinan, China and have amassed hundreds of passwords for personal Gmail accounts.
Google was able to identify the breach through its cloud-based security and abuse detection systems and was then able to notify customers of the cyber crime. It seems that the hackers had specific targets in mind such as senior Chinese political activists, military personnel, journalists, officials in several Asian countries, U.S. government officials and military personnel among others. Below is an example of the phishing scam that was deployed against Gmail accounts.
So the question remains, are these huge corporations able to protect our personal information against these increasingly sophisticated hackers? Also, what can an individual do to protect themselves against phishing attacks?
At the end of the day they are called hackers because they hack and they are successful at it. Most businesses will attempt to take the necessary action to protect your personal information against cyber attacks but much of the responsibility of protecting your information lies on your own shoulders. Basic practices are a great way to start, such as selecting strong and unique passwords and changing those passwords every few months. Sources should be verified before sharing information when receiving emails from your financial institution or your email provider such as Gmail, take a moment to look over the page to see if it looks correct. You should always check the URL to make sure it is accurate and always remember that a financial institution will never ask you to log into your account through email.
Corporations have their part to play too and signing up with an organization such as Brandprotect which is able to identify and initiate take down for phishing, vishing and malware attacks allows the corporation to now say with confidence that it is doing the utmost possible to protect their customers private information.