In June we blogged about highly targeted emails that we being sent to the gmail accounts of U.S. government officials.
Contagio reports that the disclosure of these attacks has not stopped the attacks or caused the attackers to give up. The latest attacks use a real report titled “Blinded: The Decline of U.S. Earth Monitoring Capabilities and its Consequences for National Security” from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington D.C. think tank, as bait. The victim is encouraged to subscribe to reports using their gmail credentials. The concept appears to be that because using gmail credentials is a common log-in method, the victim will fall for the scam. If the victim takes the bait, the attacker gains access to the victim’s gmail account. Contagio reports that the attackers log into the account about two hours after it is compromised.
Contagio notes, “Google are aware of this, there is not much they can do to prevent these from coming in but I am sure they are trying.”