On Tuesday, Mike Hearn, Google Security Engineer, wrote in a corporate blog, ”Compared
to five years ago, more scams, illegal, fraudulent or spammy messages
today come from someone you know. Although spam filters have become very
powerful — in Gmail, less than 1 percent of spam emails make it into an
inbox — these unwanted messages are much more likely to make it through
if they come from someone you’ve been in contact
with before. As a result, in 2010 spammers started changing their
tactics — and we saw a large increase in fraudulent mail sent from
Google Accounts.”
According to Google, to dodge spam
filters, spammers are going into valid email accounts and sending mails
to account’s contacts. These are considered serious attacks and Hearn
noted, “We’ve seen a single attacker using stolen passwords to attempt
to break into a million different Google accounts every single day, for
weeks at a time. A different gang attempted sign-ins at a rate of more
than 100 accounts per second.”
What can Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) do to
stop this? Hearn explained that the disruptions can be held off by
a ”complex risk analysis” at the time someone attempts signing into
account whether it’s on a daily basis or less frequently. From 120-plus
variables, it can conclude if an account has been opened via a simple
username and password or if something appears suspicious, Google will
then use follow-up questions, including a phone number that comes with
the account.
Since the company started utilizing these methods, compromised accounts have declined 99.7 percent since peaking in 2011.
While this comes as disturbing news to email users, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) did have some good news on Tuesday.
Its stock hit $800 in the morning. This comes after Monday’s news that the company may open retail stores.
The stock hit $803 at 10:15 am EST, a
rise of more than 1 percent. With the trading day half over, the stock
is currently trading at $802, up 1.20 percent.
Aaron Kessler, senior research analyst with Raymond James, noted that with the company’s better than expected fourth quarter earnings
reported in January, investors appear more “comfortable” with the
company’s mobile business. But he is unsure whether the stores would add
to Google’s sales growth.
He said via ABC News, “The Android ecosystem is doing pretty well. It continues to gain market share so it’s hard to say if that will really help them more.”
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal,
citing anonymous sources, reported Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s possible
retail stores which would exhibit its consumer electronics products.
This would come in competition with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s successful Apple stores.
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