[646] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] More on Gmail attacks
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Sat Apr 17 21:57:48 2010
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:32:59 -0700
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After more digging, and some very useful responses from the
readership, I believe we may be seeing an "uptick" in an ongoing
problem of compromised Gmail accounts being used to send spam to
contact lists.
Google has suggested that some of these are caused by spoofed Gmail
e-mail addresses (but that wouldn't explain apparent access to Google
Account contact lists in many cases), or other account compromises due
to phishing attacks, etc. Some users have expressed suspicions (not
confirmed) that attacks are coming through mobile interfaces to Gmail.
But in any case, it appears that there has been a significant sudden
increase in reported instances of these problems.
Google's current write-up on the issue: http://bit.ly/bBKRjj
Media story on the problem from a few days ago:
http://bit.ly/dr5BqB (IT Web Security - Johannesburg)
More info as relevant and useful facts are available.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
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