In a time when data privacy and security concern is at an all-time high, Google has come out to reiterate its stance on government-backed attacks, to no doubt try and reassure its users.
According to the post that went up on Google"s Security Blog, the company outlines that since 2012, it has warned users when their accounts were suspected of state-sponsored attacks. A year ago, in an effort to make these things even clearer for the user, the firm changed how notifications were delivered, doing away with a small warning banner that could have gone unnoticed.
While a majority of users will never see such a warning, Google is again putting the spotlight on these types of attacks, but also explains:
The notice does not necessarily mean that the account has been compromised or that there is a widespread attack. Rather, the notice reflects our assessment that a government-backed attacker has likely attempted to access the user’s account or computer through phishing or malware.
Naturally, Google urges users to get a Security Checkup to make sure that everything is secure and to also enable two-factor authentication, which a lot of its services support.
Source: Google