There are many skills that a human being ends up needing over the course of their life. All these skills benefit us in their own unique way; therefore their importance remains unaffected by the others. Nevertheless, if we are to pick one particular skill, which has proved itself time and again as more significant than the rest, it will be our ability to sniff out opportunities. In all honesty, we have no idea about the number of occasions where this one has triggered a big leap for us, but we can safely say it’s a lot. When you have such an expansive element in play, it’s obvious that the real-world effects emerging from it will also touch on many aspects, and any talk about foraying into different areas must include technology. While technology’s arrival was largely muddled with doubts about its long-term future, the world did share a glowing opinion of its potential. Everyone knew that allowing this creation to go the distance might just translate directly to a better world. Time rolled by and the doubts begin to dwindle, as technology marched towards a new milestone every day. It felt like we were finally past the stage of uncertainty, but before anyone could embrace the said realization, a harsh reality check got thrown our way. Till now, the world had little idea regarding what kind of risk technology was bestowing upon them on regular basis, so learning that information sent shockwaves throughout the tech community and beyond. Ever since then, we have seen more and more cases binging us to pace with various tech vulnerabilities. The latest one to do so involved your trusted search-giant, Google.
Google has confirmed that the company’s cloud platform was recently hit by a substantial cyberattack, resulting in around 50 accounts getting compromised. According to numerous reports, 86% of these accounts belonged to cryptocurrency miners. Hence, if the miners don’t take protective measures as soon as possible, hackers can easily use their access of the mining procedure to set the stage for a phishing attack, which will be far more damaging than we are currently able to imagine. By looking deeper into Google’s own “Threat Horizon” report, we can understand that majority of the accounts had cryptocurrency mining software downloaded in less than 22 seconds after the infiltration was completed. In 10% cases, hackers also used the account to spy on other vulnerable systems.
Google pointed at poor customer security practices as the primary reason behind this mishap. It might sound like an act of scapegoating, but the company backed its claim by revealing that nearly half the accounts were found to have a weak password or no password at all.