Iranian GMail Accounts Targeted for Hacking Prior to Elections

Have been occurring for the past three weeks

Thousands of Gmail account users in Iran have been targeted in phishing attacks intended to influence the country's national election, Google announced.

The attacks originated inside Iran and have been occurring for about three weeks, Eric Grosse, vice president of Google security engineering, wrote on the company's blog on Wednesday.

"These campaigns, which originate from within Iran, represent a significant jump in the overall volume of phishing activity in the region," Grosse said. "The timing and targeting of the campaigns suggest that the attacks are politically motivated in connection with the Iranian presidential election on Friday.