Gmail: Is It a Go To Platform for Bad Actors?
November 22, 2021
“91% of All Bait Attacks Conducted over Gmail” is a report. Like many other cyber security related studies, the information is shaped to send a shiver of fear through the reader. Now is the assertion “all” accurate? Categorical affirmatives appear to make the writer appear confident in the data presented. The phrase “bait attack” sounds like insider speak. What’s the write up present? Here’s a passage I found interesting:
Researchers from Barracuda analyzed bait attack patterns in September 2021 from 10,500 organizations.
Where are the findings; specifically, the information about “bait attacks”?
The answer is, “Not in the article.” The write up points the reader to a link for a study conducted by Barracuda. If you want to read that report in its marketing home, navigate here. Then accept cookies. You will see that the examples are indeed email. The connection to Google is that the service is popular. It makes sense that bad actors would use a large email system as a convenient method of reaching individuals, obtaining information about valid and invalid email accounts, and other sorts of mischief.
What’s the fix? Put the onus on Goggle? Nah. Buy a Barracuda product? But if the cyber defense system worked, wouldn’t the method become less effective. Organizations would license the solution in droves. Has that happened?
Well, the attacks are widespread, according to the research. Google apparently is not able to manage the messages. The user remains an unwitting target.
So what’s the fix?
My thought is that Gmail accounts have to be verified. Cyber security companies should publish reports that reveal significant payoffs from their methods. Users should be smarter, more willing to keep their email address under wraps, and better at security.
Right now, none of these actions and attitudes are happening. What is happening is content marketing and jargon.
Some companies are quite good at talk. Cyber security solutions? That’s another story. I love that “all” approach too.
Stephen E Arnold, November 22, 20201
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