TAG security engineer Toni Gidwani wrote on Thursday that her squad had come forth nearly 40,000 warnings to users worldwide in 2019 ; a 25 per centum drop from the previous year . She attribute the glide , in part , to Google ’s own advancement in security , which she claim are now force foreign hack to be “ more measured in their attempts . ”
Among the trends recognized by TAG in recent months , state - patronise hacker are increasingly portraying themselves as journalists online , Gidwani wrote , finger Iran and North Korea as top offenders . The destination in some cases is to spread disinformation . But masquerading as journalists or even news outlets also allows cyberpunk to “ seed untrue stories ” among legitimate news sources .
What ’s more , TAG offer an update in its efforts to chase Sandworm , a supposedly Russia - nexus menace radical that Google first take in circulate Android malware in South Korea in 2017 . TAG ’s work aided the company in detecting the malware on Google Play where Sandworm had upload several of its own apps . Sandworm is also known for targeting industrial ascendancy systems , particularly in Ukraine . An attack on Ukraine ’s energy grid in 2016 , for example , left one - fifth part of Kiev ’s occupant temporarilywithout power .
Photo: Getty
Sandworm is credit with the 2018 Olympics cyberattack known as “ Olympic Destroyer , ” described in bang-up point by longsighted - time pumped reporter Andy Greenberg in his 2019 bookSandworm .
TAG ’s update on the group ’s natural action includes a graphical record mapping out its most heavily direct sector over time .
Another unidentified radical of cyberpunk made utilisation of five zero - mean solar day exposure totarget North Koreanslast class , according to TAG . The attack were carried out by exploiting flaws in cyberspace Explorer , Chrome , and Windows .
Graphic: Google Threat Analysis Group
“ TAG actively hunts for these eccentric of attacks because they are particularly grave and have a eminent pace of winner , although they account for a modest issue of the overall total , ” Gidwani wrote . ( TAG ’s blog includesa breakdownof the specific vulnerabilities used in the attacks on North Koreans , only a few thousand of which are trust to have any form of online memory access . )
accord to Gidwani , TAG design to release a future update key out cyberattacks link to the coronavirus eruption , which has kill nearly 27,000 people worldwide , according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University .
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