Latest news with #GoogleSecurity
Indian Express
7 hours ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Google strengthens AI-powered fraud detection and security efforts in India
Google on Tuesday, June 17, unveiled its Safety Charter in India, aiming to strengthen its efforts in AI-led fraud detection and combat the rise in digital scams across the country. In India, which is seen as a digital-first nation, fraud related to UPI grew 85 per cent year-over-year to nearly $11 billion last year. In response to increasing incidents of digital arrests and frauds—where scammers impersonate officials to extort money via video calls and fraudulent loan apps—Google is addressing these threats through the new Charter. 'India's digital journey continues to unlock incredible opportunities, but alongside that, we've also seen a rise in the sophistication and aggression of the threat landscape,' said Heather Adkins, Vice President of Engineering, Google Security, addressing a packed audience comprising media ecosystem partners, and government representatives. 'If the threats are moving at machine speed, we must react at machine speed as well.' Adkins explained that Google's Safety Charter is built on three fundamental pillars: protecting end users from online fraud, ensuring cybersecurity for governments and organizations at the enterprise level and building AI in a responsible and ethical way. During the summit, the company announced that Google Pay, one of the leading UPI-based payment apps in India, issued 41 million warnings against transactions suspected to be potential scams. Google Messages, which comes preinstalled on many Android smartphones, uses AI-powered Scam Detection, helping protect users from over 500 million suspicious messages each month. Meanwhile, Google piloted its Play Protect programme in India last year, claiming it has blocked nearly 60 million attempts to install high-risk apps. This effort has prevented the installation of over 220,000 unique malicious apps across more than 13 million devices. Adkins, a founding member of Google's security team who has been with the company for over 23 years, also highlighted how Google is leveraging artificial intelligence to detect threats. 'This is where AI comes into the fight—where humans might take days or weeks to detect a threat, we've been able to deploy Gemini to detect it in a fraction of the time,' she said. 'This isn't just about fixing the problem; it's about reacting quickly.' 'Using Gemini, we have improved threat identification by 300 percent,' she continued. 'It's like a super-fast detective, sifting through layers of information to find the needle in the haystack that unlocks a deeper understanding of the threat.' Google has partnered with the Ministry of Home Affairs' Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to raise awareness about cybercrimes, the company said in a blog post. This collaboration builds on Google's existing efforts, including the launch of its online fraud identification program, DigiKavach, which debuted in 2023 to curb the harmful effects of malicious financial apps and predatory loan apps. Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin. Email: ... Read More
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Google releases 'safety charter' for India, senior exec details top cyber threat actors in the country
On digital privacy laws emerging around the world, including India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, Adkins said the company advocates for standardisation and principles-based approach to enable a seamless experience as they adapt across countries, while factoring in local needs and innovation. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads India has a unique lens on how technology is being used today, given the scale of the country, the speed at which people are coming online, and the vibrancy of the business community, said Heather Adkins , VP security engineering, Google . Threat actors responding to this ecosystem also provides a useful view of the evolving threat landscape, she said, adding that patterns seen in India may be translated in other parts of the on Tuesday released a 'safety charter' for India to address online scams and fraud, cybersecurity for government and businesses, and responsible artificial intelligence. The company is looking to deepen partnerships with the government, local organisations, and academia in these areas, said under the safety charter will be executed through the Google Security Engineering Centre being set up in a hub-and-spoke model across Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, she told engagements help to understand patterns better and protect people globally, Adkins said.'What we might learn about a pattern in India will then be automatically translated to a user somewhere else in the world, which is very beneficial for us,' she said, 'and because of India's scale, you have so many people online, that gives us a lens that's very unique in the world in terms of what we can see.'Fraudulent loan apps and 'digital arrest' scams, for instance, were seen emerging in the digital privacy laws emerging around the world, including India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, Adkins said the company advocates for standardisation and principles-based approach to enable a seamless experience as they adapt across countries, while factoring in local needs and innovation.'Regulation works well when it addresses the problem and gets it solved, and so what we don't want to see is regulation that makes the other problems worse,' she the question of heightened threats during conflicts like the recent India-Pakistan tensions, Adkins said cybersecurity is now a bigger factor in conflicts as well as natural disasters across the world, with scammers trying to trick people via, say, donation links.'It's really easy for the scammers to pick up on current events and then use that to trick well-intentioned people out of money, out of personal information, into installing apps that are dangerous,' she actors are also using Gen AI for greater productivity, language translation, and research, and the company is 'very concerned' about how the technology can make attacks easier, said information and signals about these trends among partners will help tackle the problem, she said, adding that AI is also key in identifying fraud emails or removing malicious is set to collaborate further with the ministry of home affairs, partnering with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) for user awareness on cybercrimes over the next two months.
Economic Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Google releases 'safety charter' for India, senior exec details top cyber threat actors in the country
Live Events India has a unique lens on how technology is being used today, given the scale of the country, the speed at which people are coming online, and the vibrancy of the business community, said Heather Adkins , VP security engineering, Google . Threat actors responding to this ecosystem also provides a useful view of the evolving threat landscape, she said, adding that patterns seen in India may be translated in other parts of the on Tuesday released a 'safety charter' for India to address online scams and fraud, cybersecurity for government and businesses, and responsible artificial intelligence. The company is looking to deepen partnerships with the government, local organisations, and academia in these areas, said under the safety charter will be executed through the Google Security Engineering Centre being set up in a hub-and-spoke model across Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, she told engagements help to understand patterns better and protect people globally, Adkins said.'What we might learn about a pattern in India will then be automatically translated to a user somewhere else in the world, which is very beneficial for us,' she said, 'and because of India's scale, you have so many people online, that gives us a lens that's very unique in the world in terms of what we can see.'Fraudulent loan apps and 'digital arrest' scams, for instance, were seen emerging in the digital privacy laws emerging around the world, including India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, Adkins said the company advocates for standardisation and principles-based approach to enable a seamless experience as they adapt across countries, while factoring in local needs and innovation.'Regulation works well when it addresses the problem and gets it solved, and so what we don't want to see is regulation that makes the other problems worse,' she the question of heightened threats during conflicts like the recent India-Pakistan tensions, Adkins said cybersecurity is now a bigger factor in conflicts as well as natural disasters across the world, with scammers trying to trick people via, say, donation links.'It's really easy for the scammers to pick up on current events and then use that to trick well-intentioned people out of money, out of personal information, into installing apps that are dangerous,' she actors are also using Gen AI for greater productivity, language translation, and research, and the company is 'very concerned' about how the technology can make attacks easier, said information and signals about these trends among partners will help tackle the problem, she said, adding that AI is also key in identifying fraud emails or removing malicious is set to collaborate further with the ministry of home affairs, partnering with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) for user awareness on cybercrimes over the next two months.
Forbes
05-05-2025
- Forbes
Google Issues New Windows Captcha Security Alert — Don't Be Fooled
Beware the fake Captcha attacks. getty When it comes to malware, high on the list of the most dangerous, and certainly amongst the most prolific, is the infostealer. If you've ever wondered what was behind headlines such as 19 billion compromised passwords published online or one million Windows devices infected, that's infostealer malware. The Lumma stealer family is, almost certainly, the most virulent, deploying thousands of fake 'I Am Not A Robot' captcha lures. Google has now issued a warning about the Lummac.V2 infostealer malware threat. Here's what you need to know. When it comes to infostealer malware, the likes of which come after your passwords, 2FA codes that are meant to add an extra layer of protection against attack, as well as everything from browser information to email databases, there is no bigger threat than Lumma Stealer. Other than, perhaps, the less tongue-friendly Lummac.V2 reworking of the Lummac malware that, itself, is a variant of Lumma Stealer. A Google Cloud Security report by Praveeth Dsouza, a Google security analyst, and Tommy Dacanay, a senior security analyst of threat hunting at Google, has warned that Lummac.V2 targets everything from browsers and crypto wallets, through password managers and Remote Desktop applications, to email platforms and instant messaging apps. A part of the Google Security 'Finding Malware' series, the report takes a deep technical dive into the emerging threat that Lummac.V2 presents. It is, in fairness, far too technical to go into detail here, so I would heartily recommend those of a more advanced technical bent to go read the whole thing. The TL;DR, however, is that Lummac.V2 steals 'credentials, logins, emails, personal and system details, screenshots, and cookies,' according to the report. It accomplishes this by using the ClickFix method of social engineering, which employs fake captcha verification pages to execute malicious commands via the Windows run dialog. I've said it before, and I'm saying it again now: if a captcha asks you to open a Windows run dialog and enter commands, run for the hills. This is not normal behavior, and there's no reason on earth why a captcha verification should ask you to do such a thing. The Google report is an excellent reminder of how prevalent these threats are, but a little common sense goes a long way in keeping them at arm's length.
