Advertisement
Singapore markets closed
  • Straits Times Index

    3,224.01
    -27.70 (-0.85%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,248.49
    +44.91 (+0.86%)
     
  • Dow

    39,760.08
    +477.75 (+1.22%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,399.52
    +83.82 (+0.51%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    70,509.84
    +478.95 (+0.68%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,949.27
    +17.29 (+0.22%)
     
  • Gold

    2,228.00
    +15.30 (+0.69%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    82.67
    +1.32 (+1.62%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.2260
    +0.0300 (+0.71%)
     
  • Nikkei

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • FTSE Bursa Malaysia

    1,530.60
    -7.82 (-0.51%)
     
  • Jakarta Composite Index

    7,288.81
    -21.28 (-0.29%)
     
  • PSE Index

    6,903.53
    +5.36 (+0.08%)
     

Here’s the new warning Google will show you if you’re being attacked by government hackers

sundar pichai google ceo alphabet
sundar pichai google ceo alphabet

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during a Google media event on September 29, 2015 in San Francisco, California.

Google is revamping the message shown when your account is targeted by government-backed hackers.

It’s not exactly a problem that most of us have to deal with. For the overwhelming majority of people, if someone tries to break into one of their online accounts it’s likely to be a regular criminal, or abusive partner — or perhaps just a prank-minded friend.

But a small proportion of users (less than 0.1%, Google says) are targeted by hackers backed by national governments. The targets might be journalists, or activists, high-profile business figures, or even officials from other countries.

ADVERTISEMENT

Google, like other companies, doesn’t say how it distinguishes these kind of attacks from other hacks — if they did, it would help the attackers. But it does display a message to users who it believes are being targeted. On Thursday, it updated that message. Here’s how it now looks:

google hackers nation state sponsored
google hackers nation state sponsored

Jigsaw

(You can see the old one here.)

The new warning was announced in a blog post by Shane Huntley, who works on Google’s security team, and Jonathan Pevarnek, an engineer for Jigsaw — a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet that tries to “use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges, from countering violent extremism to thwarting online censorship to mitigating the threats associated with digital attacks.”

NOW WATCH: Giant floating solar panels are saving a water company millions of dollars


The post Here’s the new warning Google will show you if you’re being attacked by government hackers appeared first on Business Insider.