Google Post Phishing Quiz

On Tuesday, Google’s Jigsaw unit published a quiz that tests users’ abilities to identify phishing emails. The quiz tests you on a series of emails to see if you can distinguish telltale signs of phishing. “Phishing is, by far, the most common form of cyberattack,” Jigsaw explains in a blog post. “One percent of emails sent today are phishing attempts.” According to the post, the quiz is based on trainings Jigsaw held with “10,000 journalists, activists, and political leaders.” In total, there are eight examples that Google tests you on, some representing legitimate emails and others phishing scams. Many of the examples are actually based on real events, such as the massive phishing attempt that hit Google Doc users in 2017 or an email that Russian hackers sent to Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016.

Click here for the quiz.

Jigsaw is an experimental incubator project within Google that’s aimed at tackling broad geopolitical problems in the tech space, often through relatively simple microsites and software projects. In the past, the group has produced troll-detecting software, an open-sourced tool to help media organizations provide journalists with VPNs, and AI tools that filter out abusive language.

How John Podesta's email account was hacked: When the phishing email first arrived, John Podesta referred it to a number of aides. An aide named Charles Delavan replied, “This is a legitimate email. John needs to change his password immediately.” But according to the Times report, that email was a simple flub — at least according to the aide in question. Delavan says he knew the email was a fraud, based on similar phishing attempts that had been spotted and blocked. He had meant to write “illegitimate email,” and simply mistyped. On that recommendation, the email was opened and the account was compromised, resulting in the publication of Podesta’s archive. Unaffiliated trolls subsequently used information from the emails to compromise Podesta’s iCloud account and remotely wipe his iPhone and iPad.

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https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/22/18193107/google-phishing-emails-quiz-jigsaw-cyberattack