Google takes action to protect your Email…from the government

Shortly after the announcement that they would be warning Chinese users if they are about to search for flagged terms, Google will now also be alerting Gmail users if there account had been subject to “malicious activity” by third-parties, primarily Governments. This move is a large leap forward in Google’s transparency and shows they’ve taken pro-user stance against government interference.

“Later today, the company will announce a new warning system that will alert Gmail users when Google believes their accounts are being targeted by state-sponsored attacks. The new system isn’t a response to a specific event or directed at any one country, but is part and parcel of Google’s recent set of policy changes meant to allow users to protect themselves from malicious activity brought on by state actors. It also has the effect of making it more difficult for authoritarian regimes to target political and social activists by hacking their private communications.

‘We are constantly on the lookout for malicious activity on our systems, in particular attempts by third parties to log into users’ accounts unauthorized. When we have specific intelligence-either directly from users or from our own monitoring efforts-we show clear warning signs and put in place extra roadblocks to thwart these bad actors,’ reads a note to users by Eric Grosse, Google’s vice president for security engineering, to be posted later today on Google’s Online Security blog, obtained in advance by The Cable. ‘Today, we’re taking that a step further for a subset of our users, who we believe may be the target of state-sponsored attacks.’

When Google’s internal systems monitoring suspicious internet activity, such as suspicious log-in attempts, conclude that such activities include the involvement of states or state-backed initiatives, the user will now receive the specialized, more prominent warning pictured above. The warning doesn’t necessarily mean that a user’s account has been hijacked, but is meant to alert users that Google believes a state sponsored attack has been attempted so they can increase their security vigilance.

Google wants to be clear they are not singling out any one government for criticism and that the effort is about giving users transparency about what is going on with their accounts, not about highlighting the malicious actions of foreign states.

‘If you see this warning it does not necessarily mean that your account has been hijacked. It just means that we believe you may be a target, of phishing or malware for example, and that you should take immediate steps to secure your account,’ Grosse writes. ‘You might ask how we know this activity is state-sponsored. We can’t go into the details without giving away information that would be helpful to these bad actors, but our detailed analysis-as well as victim reports-strongly suggest the involvement of states or groups that are state-sponsored.’

Google insiders told The Cable that Google will not be giving out information on which governments it sees as the most egregious violators of web privacy.  For Google, the new initiative is not an effort against governments but a way to help its users help defend and protect themselves.

Users who click through the new warning message will be directed to a page that outlines commonly seen security threats and suggests ways users can immediately raise their level of security on Gmail.

‘We’re constantly working to prevent harmful activity on our services, especially attempts to compromise our users’ information,’ the insider said. ‘The primary message is: we believe that you’re a target so you should take immediate steps to protect your account.’”

Continue to the full article…

 

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