Google revealed on Wednesday that phishing activity in Iran has jumped, as its citizens prepare to hit the polls on Friday.
For nearly three weeks, the search giant has "detected and disrupted" tens of thousands of Iranian user accounts that were targeted by email-based phishing scams originating in Iran, according to a blog post blog post published Wednesday.
"The timing and targeting of the campaigns suggest that the attacks are politically motivated in connection with the Iranian presidential election on Friday," wrote Eric Grosse, Google's vice-president of security engineering.
These phishing emails encouraged users to visit a website that purportedly helped them add an alternate email to their accounts. Clicking the link will take users to a fake Google sign-in page that steals usernames and passwords, according to Grosse.
In 2011, Google's Chrome browser detected a group that used SSL certificates to launch attacks against Iranian users at the time. Google believes the same group is responsible for Iran's recent phishing scams.
In the blog post, Grosse recommended using Chrome and enabling two-factor authentication to secure user accounts.
Iran's last presidential election took place in 2009, and resulted in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Homepage image via AFP/Getty Images/Behrouz Mehri; bottom image courtesy of Google
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