Google have confirmed via their own blog that a series of Gmail accounts had recently been compromised by an unknown Chinese hacker.
The accounts in question even included government authorities, Chinese political activists, government officials from South Korea and several U.S government personnel, so it certainly looks as though the hacker in question has a specific motive.
Accounts were accessed by means of a “phishing” scheme carried out by the hacker, rather than breaking through Google’s security measures outright to access the accounts. A fake webpage was set up, and the victims were tricked into entering their usernames and passwords for their personal email accounts. From there on it was plain sailing for our Chinese hacker to gain entry to the accounts.
Google claim that the unauthorised account accessing wasn’t the fault of Gmail or Google’s security systems, which is fair enough given that the victims voluntarily entered their own information. You’d think that being government personal etc, these people would be more aware of phishing schemes and more cautious when entering their personal details online, wouldn’t you?
If you’re concerned for the safety of your own Gmail account, Google have posted some helpful instructions on their blog post here.