The spear phishing method used in this attack is far from being new or sophisticated. However, I am posting the following information due to the particularly invasive approach of the attack. Google, Yahoo, and other personal mail services do not offer the same protection against spoofing and malware as enterprise accounts. In addition, it is often being checked at home in a relaxed atmosphere, which helps to catch the victim off guard, especially if it appears to arrive from a frequent contact. Some people have a habit of forwarding messages from enterprise accounts to their personal mail for saving or easy reading at home, which may potentially offer some sensitive information.
Distribution:
Email link, targeted phishing message sent to Gmail account of a person associated with military or political affairs. Links are customized and individualized for each target.
Spot the Difference:
Fake Gmail HTM page retrieved from the victim's IE Temporary Internet files compared to a real page. Both are from February 2011.
More here ( references/image source ):
  • http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ensuring-your-information-is-safe.html
  • http://contagiodump.blogspot.com/2011/02/targeted-attacks-against-personal.html


- To be honest, phising/spear-phising proves to be the most effective offensive program both for cybercriminals and cyberespionage agency. Since the 8th layer will always be the most exploited, Gmail has set-up a new standard in security by improving its defensive measure against certain attacks. Still, it will only work if the user help themselves.

- Again, the said attacks originates from China.