Why a Lot of People are Getting Hacked by Government Spyware

In May 2025, a highly personalized phishing campaign targeted expert Keir Giles: the attacker posed as a U.S. State Department official and convinced Giles to create and send app-specific passwords to bypass multi-factor authentication. Google detected and blocked the operation and attributed it to a Russian state-backed actor, while Citizen Lab noted the attacker used a novel method.