Cybersecurity experts have warned for some time that the war in Ukraine is causing an increase in cyberattacks. This has now been confirmed by Google's threat analysis group, according to which state-sponsored hackers from Russia, China, Iran or North Korea have been involved in cyberattacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure in the past few weeks. Fortunately, the American technology giant is doing something about it.
In March, Google warned that Ukraine was being targeted by state-sponsored hackers from China. Virtually immediately thereafter, he began strengthening security measures and documenting his efforts to protect customers. On April 20, the US agency CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency) issued a warning about a new wave of attacks by state-funded Russian hacking groups (such as Fancy Bear or Berserk Bear).
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This government warning was only recently published, but cyber security experts have been "on alert" for several months, and even Google is trying to prevent the success of some of these attacks. According to him, some of them try to steal cookies and saved passwords from Internet browsers, including his Chrome, others are phishing attacks targeting services such as Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive, and Google also mentions site spoofing. Many of these attacks are targeted at high-profile targets, such as the "Curious George" attack that hit military, logistics and manufacturing organizations in Ukraine, or the "Ghostwriter" campaign aimed at phishing Gmail credentials of specific "high-risk" individuals in the country.
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Google says it has identified the websites and domains of these attacks and added them to Safe Browsing service lists to reduce the chance of unwary users ending up on them. Gmail and Workspace users targeted by the state-sponsored attack have been notified and encouraged to take simple steps to increase their security, according to Google. These included turning on Enhanced Safe Browsing in Chrome or installing the latest updates on their devices. Google's efforts have been so successful that the company now claims that attacks from certain sources, such as the aforementioned Ghostwriter campaign, did not compromise a single Google account. However, the fight is not over, because according to security experts from Microsoft, the number of state-sponsored attacks on Ukraine will continue to increase.
