Russian Hackers Bypass Gmail 2FA In Complex Phishing And Social Engineering Attack
Bitdefender, Friday, June 20th, 2025
Hackers have waged a sophisticated social engineering and phishing campaign to target a high-profile researcher by exploiting a Gmail feature.
A suspected Russia-backed group, likely APT29 (Cozy Bear), has launched an advanced phishing operation against Keir Giles, an outspoken critic of Russian aggression. The attackers bypassed multi-factor authentication (MFA) protections by exploiting a lesser-known Gmail feature that let hackers log in without actually knowing the password.