---
title: "You&#8217;ll Never Guess What Technique Cyberspies Use to Hack into Google | Phish Protection"
description: "You&#38;#8217;ll Never Guess What Technique Cyberspies Use to Hack into Google: Government-backed cyberspies are always looking for a way to gain access to."
image: "https://phishprotection.com/og/blog/youll-never-guess-what-technique-cyberspies-use-to-hack-into-google.png"
canonical: "https://phishprotection.com/blog/youll-never-guess-what-technique-cyberspies-use-to-hack-into-google/"
---

Quick Answer

So, what technique do you suppose these cyberspies prefer when it comes to hacking someone's Google account?\_ Is it a brute force password attack? How about a SQL injection attack? Man-in-the-middle attack? Nope. None of them.\_

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![Phish Protection blog post image](https://media.mailhop.org/phishprotection/images/2019/12/phishing-attack-prevention-2279.jpg) 

_Government-backed cyberspies are always looking for a way to gain access to people’s sensitive information_. One of their favorite targets is their Google account, since so many people store information there. And even if they don’t, a Google account can be a critical access point to sensitive information stored elsewhere.

So, what technique do you suppose these cyberspies prefer when it comes to hacking someone’s Google account?\_ Is it a brute force password attack? How about a SQL injection attack? Man-in-the-middle attack? Nope. None of them.\_

When a cyberspy wants to gain access to a Google account, they use the trusted old **phishing attack**.[ More than 90% of the time](https://www.pcmag.com/news/372225/google-detects-steady-stream-of-phishing-attacks-from-cybers). That’s right. When the most sophisticated hackers in the world want access to your Google account, they’ll send you a phishing email because they know it works.

![Phishing attack prevention](https://media.mailhop.org/phishprotection/images/2019/12/phishing-attack-prevention-2279.jpg) 

How bad is this problem? From PC Magazine, “_From July to September, the company sent out more than 12,000 warnings to users across the globe that **government-backed attackers** were trying to break into their Google accounts through phishing scams_.”

### What countries are most at risk for these kinds of attacks?

_Of course the US, but also Pakistan, South Korea, and Vietnam._

_The surprising aspect of these attacks is how ordinary they are_. The attackers set up a fake Google page and suggest the email recipients do a password reset. By itself, there’s nothing particularly clever about this approach. However, what does make it challenging, “is how it can bypass Google’s two-factor authentication, a safeguard that requires anyone logging on to also supply a one-time passcode generated from their smartphone.”

“In total, Google has said in the past it encounters about **100 million phishing messages per day**. _So the attacks from the state-sponsored hackers only represent a small slice_.”

The good news, if there is any, is that these state-sponsored cyberattacks are easily thwarted by modern[ phishing protection software](/) like that from Phish Protection.

![Protection from phishing](https://media.mailhop.org/phishprotection/images/2019/12/protection-from-phishing-5697.jpg) 

Modern [phishing protection](/) software doesn’t care where the phishing email came from or who’s behind it. If it contains malicious content, or if it contains a link to a malicious website, phishing protection software with **real-time link click protection** keeps you from falling victim to these scams.

_Cloud-based Phish Protection requires no hardware, software or maintenance_. It sets up in 10 minutes, comes with 24/7 live technical support and only costs **pennies per users** per month. Put an end to state-sponsored cyber attacks by letting [Phish Protection](/products/advanced-threat-defense/) put them out of business.

## Topics

[ Phishing ](/tags/phishing/) 

![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/phishprotection/images/authors/brad-slavin.jpg) 

[ Brad Slavin ](/authors/brad-slavin/) 

General Manager

Founder and General Manager of DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across DuoCircle's 2,000+ customer base.

[LinkedIn Profile →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradslavin) 

## Protect your inbox from phishing attacks

Real-time email security with 60-day free trial. No credit card required.

[Start Free Trial](https://portal.duocircle.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=101&brand=phishprotection) [View Pricing](/pricing/) 

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