Google described the impressive features of its Advanced Protection Program (APP), revealing that no user of the program has fallen victim phishing attack to date to a . And the attack attempts were many.
The Advanced Protection Program (APP) is a special Google program that offers additional protection features that are not available to regular Gmail users .
The APP program was launched in the fall of 2017 and was initially made available to users . Such users are usually politicians, journalists, activists or well-known businessmen.
However, the APP is now widely available and any Google user can sign up for the program. The only requirement for its use is the possession of a hardware security or a modern smartphone, which Google uses in the APP program for cryptographic verification and authentication in all login processes.
For the past three years, the security has protected all Google accounts protected by the APP. No hacker has been able to gain access to users' accounts.
This has made the APP essential for Google users, who are very likely to fall victim to phishing attacks. In particular, state-run hacking groups often carry out such attacks on high-risk targets.
In a blog post, Toni Gidwani, Security Engineering Manager in Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), outlined Google's actions against state-sponsored hacking groups. According to Gidwani, the APP program has been extremely successful in thwarting these advanced phishing attacks and account breaches.
Google has sent thousands of alerts about attacks by state-sponsored hacking groups
Gidwani said Google had sent over 40,000 notifications to users during 2019 about state-sponsored hackers targeting accounts with malware or phishing links.
Attacks have decreased by 25% since 2018, but they are using more sophisticated techniques to target users.
According to Gidwani, Google TAG didn't just detect phishing attempts. They also detected malware that exploited zero-day vulnerabilities.
According to the TAG team, 2019 was a difficult year, with its members constantly finding hacking groups exploiting zero-days, affecting Android, Chrome, iOS, Internet Explorer, and Windows.
However, all accounts protected by the Advanced Protection Program- APP are safe.
