Google Says Notifies Users of 4,000 State-Sponsored Cyber-Attacks a Month

A senior executive of Alphabet Inc's Google unit said on Monday that the company was notifying customers of 4,000 state-sponsored cyber-attacks per month.

Speaking at a Fortune magazine tech conference in Aspen, Colorado, Google senior vice president and Alphabet board member Diane Greene mentioned the figure while touting Google's security prowess.

The Internet search leader, which develops the Android mobile system and also offers email and a range of other applications for consumers, has led the way in notifying users of government spying. Others, including Microsoft, have since followed suit.

Google had previously said that it had been issuing tens of thousands of warnings every few months and that customers often upgraded their security in response.

In the meanwhile, a commercial data transfer pact provisionally agreed by the EU executive and the United States in February received the green light from EU governments on Friday, the European Commission said, paving the way for it to come into effect this week.

Its introduction should end months of legal limbo for companies such as Google, Facebook and MasterCard after the EU's top court struck down the previous data transfer framework, Safe Harbour, on concerns about intrusive US surveillance.

Representatives of European Union member states mostly voted in favour of the EU-US Privacy Shield, but there were abstentions from Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Croatia, sources said. Austria and Slovenia have voiced concerns that the pact does not go far enough to secure their citizens' privacy.

© Thomson Reuters 2016