Greg's Corner

Google Docs used in phishing attack

It’s difficult to accomplish anything online without using one of Google’s many products. Whether your work uses Gmail as its email service or just conducting a simple web search, the majority of us will use a Google product on a daily basis. With most web users using Google’s Chrome browser, many users are entrenched into the Google ecosystem by default. Because of Google’s reach across the internet, it should come as no surprise that opportunistic cybercriminals will use Google’s familiarity to try to compromise your device and information. Once such instance of these tactics has been recently reported.

Scammers are sending out emails that appear to be from someone on your contacts list who is sharing a document with you from Google Docs. The email will have logos attached from Google and Norton Security. The email will also say that the email has been scanned for viruses. Then there will be a link leading you to the supposed document. If you click on the link, malware could be installed on your device that not only could steal your information but it could also send out similar phishing emails to everyone on your contact list further spreading this latest attack. This is similar to an attack that happened back in 2017.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DybcrJyqvAA%5D

The best way to protect yourself from this attack is to verify with the sender to make sure if this is a legitimate email or not. Enabling two-factor authentication on your email service will also go a long way in preventing your email from being hijacked. If the scammers can’t access your email remotely then they won’t be able to gain control of your outgoing emails. Most email providers offer two-factor authentication protection. While 2FA is not a 100% guarantee of protection, it does prevent a great number of attacks.