Report links hacking scheme to Iran
By The Associated Press / August 27, 2015NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have linked a sophisticated hacking scheme targeting Iranian dissidents back to Iran. A report released Thursday by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs describes how the hackers used text message and phone-based phishing to try to get around the security of Google's Gmail and access the accounts of their targets. The attacks studied by the Citizen Lab were very similar to others connected to Iranian hackers, the report says. According to the report, some of the attacks began when the targets received text messages that appeared to be from Google saying that there had been an unauthorized attempt to access their Gmail accounts. The hackers would then follow up with a carefully crafted email notification containing personal details and stating that the login attempt had been from "The Iran," boosting the fears of people already worried about Iranian hackers. The emails contained links directing the target to a page where they could reset their password.
