a fake persona named Saleena Malik , which they used to get close to journalists and activists . The primary goal was to become friends with potential victims , and after months of having private conversations , lureAttack.Phishingthe target into accessing a phishing page disguised asAttack.Phishinga Google login , and collect their credentials . Malik 's phishing attacksAttack.Phishingdid n't happen right away , but always after the victim had time to get acquainted with her fake persona . In most cases , Malik posed asAttack.Phishinga person with similar interests in activism and Qatar 's migrant labor laws . After months of private conversations via email , LinkedIn and/or Facebook , Malik would eventually inviteAttack.Phishinga target to access a document or connect via Google Hangouts . In all cases , before accessing Malik 's documents or Google Hangouts , the victim would first be promptedAttack.Phishingby a fake login page that collected their credentials . Guarnieri , who was alerted to Malik 's actions by one of the targeted journalists , was able to identify where these phishing pages were hosted and where they sent data for storage . This is how the researcher tracked down at least 30 other victims of Malik 's expert phishing attacksAttack.Phishing. Additionally , with collaboration from victims , Guarneri was also able to discover that the people behind the Malik persona had also accessed some of the phished Gmail accounts . The intruder 's IP address belonged to a local Qatar Internet service provider . What the researchers was n't able to find was who was behind the attacks . His guesses include the government of Qatar , another government wanting to make Qatar look bad , or a contractor hired by one of the construction firms or a government agency . In a statement for Amnesty International , a spokesperson for the government of Qatar denied any involvement . These particular set of attacksAttack.Phishingshow a deep knowledge of social engineering , and especially phishing tactics . Whoever was behind this campaign had both the knowledge , skills and patience to wait for the seeds he planted to bear fruits many months later