Fake Gmail Sign-In Pages: How Did John Podesta’s Email Get Hacked?
Thanks to fake Gmail sign-in pages, hackers were able to dupe John Podesta and the entire Clinton campaign.
According to Naked Security, a technique known as spear phishing was used to hack into John Podesta and the entire Clinton campaign’s account. This hacking technique involves using fake Gmail sign-in pages and security alerts to trick the owner of the email into revealing his or her password to the person attempting to hack into the Gmail account.
The Smoking Gun reports that when it came to John Podesta’s Gmail account, he received an email alert telling him that someone was trying to access his account from an unusual location. Basically, the email he received was asking him to change his password to secure his account.
With this hacking technique, John and the entire Clinton campaign was duped into believing the fake security alert and using the fake Gmail sign-in pages to give their login information directly to the hacker. From there, the hackers were able to log in to the Gmail accounts of anyone who used the fake Gmail sign-in page and do whatever they wanted to with the account.
John Podesta told Hillary's former chief of staff to "dump all those emails" after report of her private server https://t.co/QXxmlBMI3S
— New York Post (@nypost) November 1, 2016
Townhall reports that government officials using their private emails in order to avoid their emails becoming public record has become a very common occurrence. The hacking of Hillary Clinton and John Podesta’s private Gmail accounts put these two in the spotlight, but a former top State Department official acknowledges the fact that this is something nearly every government official does in order to avoid their conversations being a matter of public record.
Townhall goes on to report that the former State Department official claims that if something would be done to stop government officials from using their private email accounts for work-related matters, the issues with hacking wouldn’t have been a problem to begin with.
Similar Gmail Stories On Inquisitr
The Gmail Controversy: The Fate Of Hillary’s Emails Saved In Google Servers
Russian Hacker Leaks Massive Stash Of Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, And Gmail Passwords Online
Nashville Chatter reports the same group of Russian hackers that was believed to have developed the fake Gmail sign-in pages and security alerts that hacked the Clinton campaign is responsible for a recent Microsoft bug as well. Microsoft was given a grace period of a week before Google’s Threat Analysis group made a public announcement about the vulnerability that was exposing people to malware attacks.
Terry Myerson, the executive VP of Microsoft Windows, claims a sophisticated group of hackers was exploiting a Microsoft bug. This group of hackers has since been identified as the same group who caused the DNC and Clinton campaign data breaches. Microsoft is currently working on fixing the bug, but Terry Myerson is urging Windows users to upgrade their operating systems to Windows 10 in order to protect their devices from this potential threat.
Fake Gmail Login Forms Were Used To Hack DNC Emails – Here’s What You Need To Know About Gmail And Password Security https://t.co/UXfpNnLVen
— Maya Nix (@MLNix) October 31, 2016
Microsoft is currently working with Adobe and Google in order to create security patches to protect the lower levels of Windows. There are several versions of the security patches currently being tested. These patches will be released on November 7 for Windows users.
Do you find it embarrassing that government officials were hacked by nothing more than fake Gmail sign-in pages and security alerts? More importantly, do you think government officials should be able to use their private Gmail accounts in order to avoid their conversations becoming public record? Share your answers to these two questions in the comments section below.
[Featured Image by dennizn/Shutterstock]
