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Google, in collaboration with its Mandiant Threat Intelligence team, has issued a warning about a surge in phishing campaigns targeting higher education institutions in the United States. These campaigns, observed since August 2024, have exploited the academic calendar and institutional trust to deceive students, faculty, and staff. The attacks have been linked to a broader campaign dating back to at least October 2022, targeting thousands of users monthly.

The phishing attacks are strategically timed to coincide with key academic events such as the start of the school year and financial aid deadlines. Attackers have tricked victims into revealing sensitive credentials and financial information by leveraging these high-pressure periods. The campaigns employ various tactics, including hosting malicious Google Forms on compromised university domains and cloning university login portals to carry out payment redirection attacks. Google is addressing security concerns surrounding SMS 2FA codes by replacing Gmail’s SMS authentication with QR codes in the coming months.

ImgSrc: blogger.googleu

References :

• gbhackers.com: Google, in collaboration with its Mandiant Threat Intelligence team, has issued a warning about a surge in phishing campaigns targeting higher education institutions in the United States.
• Virus Bulletin: Researchers from Google's Mandiant have observed a notable increase in phishing attacks targeting the education sector. These attacks, timed to coincide with key dates in the academic calendar, exploit trust within academic institutions to deceive students, faculty & staff.
• Cyber Security News: Google, in collaboration with Mandiant, has issued a warning about a surge in phishing campaigns targeting higher education institutions in the United States.
• Anonymous ???????? :af:: Mandiant reported a surge in phishing campaigns targeting U.S. universities, exploiting trust to deceive students and staff, with tactics like Google Forms and website cloning, coinciding with key academic dates.
• be4sec: Is your university prepared for the latest wave of phishing attacks? A recent blog post on Google Cloud dives deep into the concerning increase in phishing campaigns specifically targeting higher education institutions.

Classification:

• HashTags: #phishing #education #cybersecurity
• Company: Google
• Target: Higher Education Institutions
• Product: Gmail
• Feature: phishing attacks
• Type: Phishing
• Severity: Medium