Gmail is the most popular email service worldwide. Though there are other options, users prefer Gmail because of its ease of handling and security measures. But Gmail is not as secure as it appears to be. Instead, this email service has always been one of the primary targets of cybercriminals and hackers. Over the years, multiple sophisticated attackers have tried entering Gmail's database and gathering sensitive user information. Some of them even succeeded in doing this.
This article will shed light on the most sophisticated attacks that Google users have faced, where hackers broke into the security system of Gmail and posed a great threat.
Gmail has encountered several attacks that were pretty concerning for users, and the most recent one happened in 2017. This is the most widely known attack the authorities have ever faced. This attack, popularly known as the Google Docs Phishing Attack, is a massive phishing campaign targeting millions of users.
Basically, in this attack, the hackers used to send a fake Google Docs invitation to the users. These were actually the invitations to open a document that used to be shared with them by trusted contacts. Therefore, users generally open the document without any hesitation and become victims.
The scariest part of this scam was that these emails were crafted in a way that looked precisely like standard Gmail invitations and were sent from authentic sources. Once clicked, these emails were used to redirect users to a fake login page, and as soon as users entered their credentials, they unknowingly provided the attackers with access to their Gmail accounts. These attacks come at the top of the sophisticated attack list because they have exploited the trusted nature of Google and Gmail to access user data.
This didn’t end there; these attackers have gone further with these scheming techniques. They used third-party software to mimic Google Docs access the personal data from Google accounts, and send further phishing emails to these users, trying to get more information from their end. This attack was widespread, and both personal and professional accounts were hacked.
Fortunately, Google responded immediately and removed the malicious app to secure accounts. For further security, Google has introduced two-factor authentication for users after this attack.
This is another sophisticated attack that has questioned Google’s security policies. This happened a decade ago, in 2014, but Gmail users affected by it must have remembered it. This highly sophisticated attack, named Man-in-the-Middle or MITM, has surprised even the most high-profile security professionals with the way it used to capture its victims’ information. Going beyond the traditional phishing scheme, this attack used an MITM strategy to set up communication between users and Google servers. It never sent any malicious mail or documents, but it used to hijack Google’s server to accomplish the task.
The basic method that these hackers use is that they first hijack the communication between the user's device and Gmail's servers. Once this step is successfully done, they used to get access to the login credentials and other sensitive user data without the user’s knowledge. As soon as the credentials were hacked, accessing the user data was not a tough task for them, especially when 2FA wasn’t there to secure the login. Therefore, users, in many cases, couldn’t even figure out that their accounts were hacked.
This sophisticated Gmail attack has targeted users who accessed their emails using unsecured internet connections or Wi-Fi. The public network users mainly were affected by this. Once again, Google took security measures to secure the affected accounts and introduced HTTPS for all Gmail traffic to stop hackers from intercepting and modifying data.
The Gmail “OAuth” scams were a series of sophisticated Gmail scams that used to abuse the OAuth authentication. For those unaware of this authentication, it used to be a widely renowned method that allowed third-party applications to access Gmail accounts without asking the user to provide their login credentials. This used to be considered a secure authentication method because it never asked for passwords. However, this scam has proved that it can be scary if it goes into the wrong hands.
During 2017 and 2018, loads of attacks have targeted Gmail users through this mechanism. Cybercriminals have taken advantage of this system and created their own apparently legitimate applications. They have also asked users to grant access to their Gmail accounts via OAuth. The most interesting part is that those apps used to be some of the most harmless apps, like calendars, photo editors, etc. Therefore, users generally never doubted them. As soon as they were prompted to allow the app to "view and manage" their Google account, they followed it, giving the hackers access to their private information.
Now, these were highly sophisticated attacks as they completely ignored the traditional login systems and exploited users' trust in the OAuth system.
Google, like always, responded quickly and strengthened its security to fight these attacks. It has introduced more detailed prompts for users while asking for permissions. Additionally, it has limited access to third-party apps through OAuth.
These are probably the longest sophisticated attacks that have affected thousands of users worldwide. Advanced Persistent Threats used to be executed by actors or well-funded hacker groups. Therefore, the detection was challenging and ran for almost two years. These attacks not only targeted individuals and businesses but also government professionals.
The APT Gmail attacks used to be executed by a group named "APT34," and this group reportedly had some connections to the Iranian government. They generally targeted the Gmail accounts used by government officials, journalists, and human rights activists rather than random people.
Unlike others, these attackers used various methods, including spear-phishing, to access Gmail accounts. In this phase, carefully written emails were sent to the victims from a trusted source. So, often, the victims open those emails without any doubt. As soon as they clicked on the link attached to the mail, they were redirected to a fake login page, where most users generally enter their credentials.
In 2016, the methods got upgraded when another notable attack, a Russian-linked APT group "Fancy Bear," started carrying out a campaign that primarily targeted political organizations and individuals involved in the U.S. elections. Once again, the attack method was pretty much the same as the fake emails sent to the victims to get the credentials. These hackers used these credentials to access government officials' sensitive emails and other information.
This attack has not directly affected Gmail users, but this Google Play Store attack has again raised questions about Google’s account security policies. Google Play Store generally contains thousands of apps. During 2018-2019, multiple apps were discovered on the Play Store that could access user data and other sensitive information without the user’s knowledge.
Apparently, all these apps appear as legitimate tools or gaming applications that are useful for users. Still, once installed, users need to enter their login credentials to the fake login pages, and those entries result in a leak of passwords, browsing history, and other sensitive data.
These are on the sophisticated attack list because these apps bypassed Google's security policies and were never detected by Google's automated systems until users complained about them.
Anyway, Google has upgraded its systems to block these fake apps from being displayed on the Play Store. It has strengthened the review method for better detection, with two-factor authentication enabled in most cases.
These sophisticated Google attacks display how far cybercriminals can go to steal user data and cause harm to people. Sometimes, they even targeted government officials and military officers to get sensitive news and invade national security. These criminals have evolved their techniques to bypass Gmail’s security every time. Therefore, users must always be cautious about clicking any unknown link or entering their credentials randomly.