Google warns of surge in activity by state-backed hackers

More than 50,000 alerts sent so far this year, including of an Iranian group that targeted a UK university

Google has warned of a surge in activity by government-backed hackers this year, including attacks from an Iranian group whose targets included a UK university.

The search group said that so far in 2021 it had sent more than 50,000 warnings to account holders that they had been a target of government-backed phishing or malware attempts. This represents an increase of a third on the same period last year, Google said in a blogpost, with the rise attributed to an unusually large campaign" by a Russian hacking group known as APT28, or Fancy Bear.