Google Releases Report on Early 2020 Hack Impacting Its Services

Google has just released a report released in six blog posts that provides the details of a massive hack that occurred early on in 2020. This hack involved the exploitation of vulnerabilities in Google Chrome and they ended up impacting Chrome users on Windows as well as on Android devices. The attacks were carried out using two exploit servers, which one server being used to target windows users whereas the other was used to target Android users thereby creating a two pronged attack wherein each prong was able to function in a manner that was relatively independent of the other.

In both cases, the vulnerabilities that were used by the malicious actors to gain initial access to the devices were found in Google Chrome. This indicates a lower than desirable level of security within this web browser, although Google has managed to get ahead of the situation at this current point in time by patching these bugs. One thing that sets this particular hack apart from the rest is how sophisticated it is. It’s clear that the malicious actors that are responsible for this hack knew what they were doing and were willing to use this knowledge to meet their own ends.

The thing to note here is that many of the hacks are still unknown, and many of the ones that have been discovered are still out there which means that you are going to be vulnerable to them if you are not careful. While Google should definitely take steps to protect users by patching such vulnerabilities before anyone gets the chance to take advantage of them, at the same time the increasing skills of hackers and the like is something to be noted.

Users need to start being more careful while on the internet. Malicious actors are getting increasingly talented at gaining illicit access to people’s devices, and they are not going to hesitate to use this access to wreak untold havoc on people’s lives. Tech companies need to work together to try and fix these issues as well otherwise it will be the users that end up suffering due to their negligence.



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