Google’s latest comprehensive survey reveals a concerning surge in cybercriminal activity, as over 60% of US consumers report an increase in scam attempts this past year. The tech giant, collaborating with Morning Consult, highlights alarming statistics: one-third of Americans have experienced data breaches, while malicious actors intensify efforts to compromise user credentials through sophisticated social engineering.

Cybercriminals now employ multiple attack vectors to harvest login information. Text message scams have emerged as the primary attack method, although 61% of respondents also report targeting via email campaigns designed to steal personal data. These attacks typically involve urgent requests for sensitive information, suspicious links, and carefully crafted phishing attempts that mimic legitimate services to deceive users into surrendering authentication credentials.

Google analysts and researchers identify a critical shift in how different demographic groups respond to these evolving threats. While over 80% of users express confidence in spotting scams by recognizing requests for personal information and suspicious links, actual implementation of robust security measures varies dramatically across age groups. This disparity in security adoption creates vulnerabilities cybercriminals actively exploit to gain unauthorized account access.

The FBI’s latest data supports Google’s findings, revealing online scams generated a record $16.6 billion in losses last year, a 33% increase from the previous year. This exponential growth in cybercriminal revenue demonstrates the effectiveness of their credential theft operations and underscores an urgent need for enhanced security measures across all digital platforms.

Authentication Vulnerabilities and Generational Security Gaps Emerge

Survey data reveals a concerning security paradox: traditional authentication methods continue to dominate despite their inherent vulnerabilities to credential theft attacks. Over 60% of Generation X and Baby Boomers still primarily rely on password-based authentication systems, creating significant attack surfaces for cybercriminals who have developed sophisticated techniques to compromise these legacy security mechanisms. Google’s research indicates that while these older authentication methods may feel familiar, they are increasingly susceptible to phishing attacks and data breaches that expose login credentials to malicious actors.

Stay ahead of emerging cybersecurity threats. For the latest insights and updates on cloud security, follow SOC News.

News Source: CybersecurityNews.com

Dive Brief:

• Google continued to ratchet up spending on technical infrastructure to meet growing demand for cloud compute services during the first three months of the year. The tech giant reported capital expenditures of $17.2 billion, primarily in servers and data centers to support consumer and enterprise products, cloud services and AI research, CFO Anat Ashkenazi said during a Q1 2025 earnings call last week.
• The company plans to increase capital expenditures by more than 40% to roughly $75 billion this year, compared to $52.5 billion in 2024. “We exited the year in cloud specifically with more customer demand than we had capacity and that was the case this quarter as well,” Ashkenazi said. “We want to make sure we ramp up to support customer needs and customer demands.”
• Google saw its cloud division revenues increase 28% year over year to $12.3 billion, driven by core infrastructure and AI services. Operating income for Google Cloud, which reported its first profitable quarter two years ago, grew 142% to nearly $2.2 billion during the three months ending March 31.

Dive Insight:

AI is the driving force behind massive capital investments by Google and its two larger hyperscale competitors, AWS and Microsoft. The technology shaped the infrastructure used to train and deploy large language models and opened the floodgates for a fresh wave of data center spend.

Less than 24 hours after the earnings call, Google announced a $3 billion commitment to build out facilities in Virginia and Indiana. The company also created a $75 million AI training fund and launched an AI fundamentals training course, according to last week’s announcement.

In early April, Google unveiled the seventh generation of its AI-optimized tensor processing unit, called Ironwood. The processor was designed to speed inference workloads and power an expanding suite of AI agents created by Google and several of the hyperscaler’s key enterprise technology provider partners, including Accenture, Deloitte and KPMG.

As autonomous AI tools raised security concerns and cyber leaders looked to leverage generative AI tools, Google beefed up its cloud protection portfolio through its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz in March.

“Together we can make it easier — and faster — for organizations of all types and sizes to protect themselves, end-to-end and across all major clouds,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, during the recent earnings call.

“We think this will help spur more multi-cloud computing — something customers want,” Pichai added.

Cloud security is a perennial priority for CIOs, ranking just below cost controls, according to Flexera. It’s also an ongoing area of focus among providers.

Microsoft tightened internal security controls and said it had improved cloud vulnerability response protocols as part of its Secure Future Initiative update in April. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy highlighted AWS’s attention to security last year after Microsoft suffered a series of state-linked cyber breaches.

During the earnings call, Google executives made no mention of a federal court ruling that found the company’s online advertising technology violates antitrust regulations. The company had already filed an appeal in a separate antitrust case pertaining to its online search business.

Stay updated with SOC News for cutting-edge security innovations and expert industry insights! 

Source: https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/google-cloud-ai-infrastructure-cybersecurity-spend/746861/

 Google on Tuesday announced it has acquired the Wiz cloud security platform in a $32 billion deal.

Google said in a press release that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wiz in an all-cash transaction and is just waiting due to “customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.”

The move, once closed, would join Wiz with Google Cloud in order to improve cloud security and accelerate the ability to “multicloud,” or use multiple clouds.

Wiz also put out a statement Tuesday, noting that Wiz and Google Cloud are “both fueled by the belief that cloud security needs to be easier, more accessible, more intelligent, and democratized, so more organizations can adopt and use cloud and AI securely.”

Google said the move is an investment in cybersecurity and cloud computing, which it said are rapidly growing industries with a vast range of solutions,” due to the “increased role of AI, and adoption of cloud services,” which is said “have dramatically changed the security landscape for customers, making cybersecurity increasingly important in defending against emergent risks and protecting national security.”

“Becoming part of Google Cloud is effectively strapping a rocket to our backs: it will accelerate our rate of innovation faster than what we could achieve as a standalone company,” Wiz said.

Google said it chose to acquire WIz due to its “easy-to-use security platform that connects to all major clouds and code environments to help prevent cybersecurity incidents.”

Google further added that this will allow it to provide protection to organizations ranging in size from “start-ups and large enterprises to governments and public sector organizations.”

However, the Wiz purchase will not impair its ability to be used across all major clouds, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Oracle Cloud platforms, and will still allow customers a variety of partner security solution choices, which will be available in the Google Cloud Marketplace.

“We will still work closely with our great partners at AWS, Azure, Oracle, and across the entire industry,” Wiz said.

Stay updated with SOC News for cutting-edge security innovations and expert industry insights! 

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/03/18/Google-Wiz-purchase-AI-cloud/5041742310995/