Gmail Accounts Of Myanmar Journalists Targeted In State-Sponsored Attacks

Mynamar isn’t exactly known for freedom of speech and the country has been fraught with censorship issues for long. Recently, state-backed censorship has been eased a bit. Now, Gmail has started warning Myanmar journalists that their accounts have been targeted in state-sponsored attacks.


Gmail warning

Google routinely notifies its users if someone tries to break into their Gmail account. The warning is meant to help the users be alert and put even better security measures in place so as to avoid any unpleasant incident.

In a recent blog post, Google revealed that it had been registering state-sponsored attacks on the Gmail accounts of a number of Myanmar journalists. However, the warning itself doesn’t mean that the accounts have been compromised. Rather, Google stated, “If you see this warning it does not necessarily mean that your account has been hijacked. It just means that we believe you may be a target, of phishing or malware for example, and that you should take immediate steps to secure your account.”

Among the journalists who have received this warning are the editor of Voice Weekly Journal, Aung Soe and an Associated Press correspondent from Myanmar, Aye Aye Win. The instance shows that although state-backed censorship towards media may have eased a little in the country, the government may still be trying to keep a close eye on journalists.

Source: Google

Courtesy: The Hacker News

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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

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