Google has reported a very staggering number of state-sponsored cases of hacking in 2021, with the number reaching 50,000 so far.
Hacking and cybercrimes are already a worrying part of the online experience. Every day, netizens hear yet another news story about some rogue user that decided to commit identity theft or irreversibly damage another user's finances for the sake of personal gain. It's kind of frustrating, especially for newcomers to the internet, since they make the most mistakes (innocuously, it must be said) that lead to such action. What's more worrying than a rogue hacker, however? One that isn't rogue. One that is actively sponsored by a government to go ahead and do their dirty work. And from the looks of it work is going smoothly.
Google's latest report of 50,000 cases is only made more confounding when placed in a larger context of state sponsored cybercrime as a whole. While 50K is definitely an upsetting amount, what's worse is that the number has increased by an insane 33% since 2020. That's right, within just a year, the number of state sponsored attackers went to that amount from around 37,000. Rarely ever a peaceful day online nowadays, isn't it so? At any rate, as we collectively reel over the shocking number of state sponsored attacks, Google's also found a culprit for these attacks.
ATP 8, colloquially known as Fancy Bear, was responsible for many of these attacks. This report was given by the devs at Google, with a major contributing factor to the numbers being a massive phishing attack conducted by the group. This large scale campaign resulted in the company as doing over 14,000 warning emails to its userbase last month. A lot of the number reporting, however, can be attributed to Google's Threat Analysis Group. The TAG monitors all forms of group related cybercrime, and this observation also involves state-led groups. Approximately 270 different state led groups from 50 different countries have been observed by the company,
Phishing attacks and massively led cyberterrorism are an ever increasingly, dangerous threat to our online personas, especially considering how much of our valuable information is placed online. At any rate, data such as this helps users stay more aware of their surroundings.
Read next: Google’s Desktop Search Result Pages Might Include Short Form Videos
Hacking and cybercrimes are already a worrying part of the online experience. Every day, netizens hear yet another news story about some rogue user that decided to commit identity theft or irreversibly damage another user's finances for the sake of personal gain. It's kind of frustrating, especially for newcomers to the internet, since they make the most mistakes (innocuously, it must be said) that lead to such action. What's more worrying than a rogue hacker, however? One that isn't rogue. One that is actively sponsored by a government to go ahead and do their dirty work. And from the looks of it work is going smoothly.
Google's latest report of 50,000 cases is only made more confounding when placed in a larger context of state sponsored cybercrime as a whole. While 50K is definitely an upsetting amount, what's worse is that the number has increased by an insane 33% since 2020. That's right, within just a year, the number of state sponsored attackers went to that amount from around 37,000. Rarely ever a peaceful day online nowadays, isn't it so? At any rate, as we collectively reel over the shocking number of state sponsored attacks, Google's also found a culprit for these attacks.
ATP 8, colloquially known as Fancy Bear, was responsible for many of these attacks. This report was given by the devs at Google, with a major contributing factor to the numbers being a massive phishing attack conducted by the group. This large scale campaign resulted in the company as doing over 14,000 warning emails to its userbase last month. A lot of the number reporting, however, can be attributed to Google's Threat Analysis Group. The TAG monitors all forms of group related cybercrime, and this observation also involves state-led groups. Approximately 270 different state led groups from 50 different countries have been observed by the company,
Phishing attacks and massively led cyberterrorism are an ever increasingly, dangerous threat to our online personas, especially considering how much of our valuable information is placed online. At any rate, data such as this helps users stay more aware of their surroundings.
Read next: Google’s Desktop Search Result Pages Might Include Short Form Videos