U.S. Senators' Personal Email Accounts Targeted by Foreign Hackers

Foreign government hackers have targeted the personal email accounts of a number of U.S. senators and their aides, Google confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

A day earlier, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to Senate leadership to inform them of the incident and call for a change in how the Senate approaches cybersecurity. Wyden wrote a "major technology company" informed him that he was being targeted.

Google has admitted that it is the company in question. The tech giant declined to say when they detected these threats and which senators were targeted, however. CNN also reported that both Republicans and Democrats were targeted.

It's not clear how successful the attacks were. Google has previously stated that when a warning is sent out, it's not a guarantee that something has happened.

 "We send these out of an abundance of caution—the notice does not necessarily mean that the account has been compromised or that there is a widespread attack," said Shane Huntley of Google's Threat Analysis Group.

This news comes as both Washington and Silicon Valley are on high alert about election security and in particular, foreign meddling in elections.

The White House has prepared sanctions for any election interference, while companies like Facebook and Symantec have introduced new tools to prevent inappropriate tricking and trolling.

This incident serves as a helpful reminder not to fall for phishing attempts. There are a few things experts recommend you do to avoid being caught.