A few months ago, Google was one of several tech giants to convene at the White House with President Biden for a discussion on advancing and funding cybersecurity measures. Considering that, as of October 2020, the company hosts over 270 million U.S. unique visitors alone, its presence in and commitment to the initiative was critical. Google pledged to invest $10 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years and is now starting to roll out that plan with a series of recently announced programs.
Google began this with week with the launch of its newly formed “Google Cybersecurity Action Team.” The team consists of an array of the company’s cybersecurity experts and will work to help customers, including governments, with attack response and security planning services. The announcement, which has been praised by Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), comes at a time when “Cybersecurity is at the top of every C-level and board agenda, given the increasing prominence of software supply chain exploits, ransomware, and other attacks,” stated Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.
Google has also developed the Work Safer Program aimed at making team communication more secure. According to the company, it combines Google’s zero-trust tools within its Workspace application with cybersecurity platforms. CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks have signed on to provide the network protection. As Jonathan Greig of ZDNet reports, the program was created with an understanding “that many small and medium-sized businesses still use legacy hardware and need help securing tools that are often at the end of their rope.” Google also hopes that Work Safer serves organizations that are experiencing staffing shortages.
In another cybersecurity related announcement, Google recently said that it will be giving out 10,000 free security keys to high-risk users. This action follows a warning that the company issued to 14,000 accounts regarding potential targeting by the Russian hacking group APT28. Of those considered high-risk are users such as politicians, journalists and human rights activists. Additionally, Google is encouraging the use of its two-factor authentication capabilities. In fact, it has plans to automatically enable this function for 150 million accounts before the end of 2021 including two million YouTube creators.
Key Takeaways:
“Google creates cybersecurity team to respond to increased hacks” – Maggie Miller, The Hill
- Google just announced the formation of the Google Cybersecurity Action Team.
- The team was created to help customers, including governments, with attack response and security planning services.
- The action has been praised by Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“Google unveils new security programs, ‘Cybersecurity Action Team’ and partnerships with CrowdStrike, Palo Alto” – Jonathan Greig, ZDNet
- Google has also developed the Work Safer Program aimed at making team communication more secure.
- It combines Google’s zero-trust tools with cybersecurity platforms provided by CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks.
- Google hopes that the program is helpful for small to medium-sized businesses as well as those experiencing staffing shortages.
“Google Sending Security Keys to 10,000 Users at High Risk of Attack” – Jeff Burt, eSecurity Planet
https://www.esecurityplanet.com/cloud/google-security-keys-advanced-protection-program/
- Google recently said that it will be giving out 10,000 free security keys to high-risk users.
- Of those considered high-risk are users such as politicians, journalists and human rights activists.
- It also has plans to automatically enable its two-factor authentication function for 150 million accounts before the end of 2021.