Google Warns of “Iranian,  Russian Hackers” Stepping up Attacks across World

Google, a US giant of Internet engine,  has warned that hackers, allegedly linked to the governments of Iran and Russia, have recently intensified their activities against customers of the company across the world.

In an article published on its Internet blog, Google touched on the activities of the Iranian hacker group known as APT35 or "Beautiful Cat."

The authors of the article noted that this group has been working for years to hack accounts, spread malware, and exploit modern spy technologies in accordance with the interests of the Tehran government.

Google brings responsibility to this group for hacking a website linked to a British university in early 2021, in order to exploit it to engage in fraudulent “phishing” activities through the services of major email companies such as Gmail, Hotmail, and, Yahoo.

The American company indicated that Iranian hackers have been relying on this method since 2017, in order to target accounts belonging to governments, academia, journalists, and non-governmental organizations.

The article stated that in the past two years, APT35 tried to spread spyware on Google Play and other similar electronic platforms, pointing out that these hackers often impersonate the organizers of anti-phishing events.

Google confirmed that since the beginning of 2021, it has issued more than 50,000 warnings to its customers about the risk of their accounts being exposed to “phishing” backed by foreign governments, or hacking, which represents an increase of nearly 33% compared to what was in the same period last year.

Google explained that this infiltration often comes against the backdrop of the intensification of the activities of another hacker group known as APT28 or "Beautiful Cat ", which the US government considers linked to Russian intelligence services.

This comes days after the US company "Microsoft" announced that hackers believed to be linked to Iran had successfully targeted engines specialized in defense technologies in the United States, Israel, and ports in Gulf countries.