Google warns politicians to protect their personal accounts while person account has being the target.\u00a0 Phishing attacks are targeting personal, as well as professional, accounts.<\/p>\n
Campaign managers and staff for politicians watch vigilantly over their business email, monitoring their accounts for phishing attacks from potential hackers. But security experts say their personal accounts pose an even bigger risk.<\/p>\n
Consider 2016 presidential election cyberattacks. John Podesta,\u00a0Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman, had 50,000 emails stolen from his personal Gmail account, not his campaign staff email.<\/p>\n
Attacks over email are one of the most common methods hackers use to infiltrate an organization. Phishing attacks are designed to trick victims into clicking on malicious links and giving up their account passwords. The attacks are much more sophisticated when hackers target high-profile people, such as politicians and candidates running for public office.<\/p>\n
Campaign hacking has continued despite mounting awareness. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri,\u00a0was the target of a phishing attack\u00a0in July. And Microsoft said it stopped phishing campaigns\u00a0targeting three unnamed election candidates.<\/p>\n
Guemmy Kim, Google\u2019s head of Account Security Initiatives, said Google often warns political candidates if it believes they are being targeted by hackers. She declined to name specific individuals, but indicated the search giant\u2019s warnings have gone to politicians and candidates in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n
Kim says campaign members often think their personal accounts are safe because they aren\u2019t used for work purposes. But Kim says those accounts hold a lot of important information, like social media passwords and financial information.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tell us, \u2018I don\u2019t need it, I don\u2019t use my Gmail,'\u201d Kim said. \u201cAnd we ask, \u2018What is the email that is associated with your Twitter and Facebook accounts?'\u201d<\/p>\n
Maciej Ceglowski, the founder of Tech Solidarity,\u00a0stresses the same point when he briefs campaigns\u00a0on security measures.<\/p>\n
Ceglowski found that campaign security trainings often stress making sure their professional email accounts are safe, but rarely mention securing personal accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way government is structured, they have very bright lines between what is campaign-related and what is personal,\u201d he said in an interview last month. \u201cAnd the security training needs to cross those boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim noted several vulnerabilities that personal email accounts have but professional ones don\u2019t. Professional accounts often have an organization tied to them, which usually means resources, like an IT staff and built-n protection.<\/p>\n
With personal accounts, you\u2019re more likely to be on your own, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone expects that your professional account is the one that\u2019s going to be attacked. But that\u2019s the one that\u2019s going to be more protected,\u201d Kim said. \u201cThe more vulnerable account is your personal account because nobody is watching out for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google has several tools for protecting personal accounts, like artificial intelligence to tell if someone suspicious is logged on. For example, if someone logs on and immediately starts searching for sensitive information, like Social Security numbers and credit card records, Google will log it as suspicious activity and warn the account holder.<\/p>\n
Kim recommends signing up for\u00a0Google\u2019s Advanced Protection Program\u00a0if you believe your account is at risk for phishing attacks. You have to sign up for it separately for your personal account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Google warns politicians to protect their personal accounts while person account has being the target.\u00a0 Phishing attacks are targeting personal, as well as professional, accounts. Campaign managers and staff for politicians watch vigilantly over their business email, monitoring their accounts for phishing attacks from potential hackers. But security experts say their personal accounts pose an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-news"],"yoast_head":"\n