The Year Targeted Phishing Went Mainstream
Summary: A sextortion phishing campaign that opened with a real password each recipient had used became the most-read story on KrebsOnSecurity since the site launched in 2009. Bitcoin addresses posted in the story's comments received close to $100,000 over two weeks, while a separate review by Twitter user @SecGuru_OTX counted more than 300 Bitcoin addresses that conned at least 150 victims out of 30 Bitcoins, roughly $250,000, as of July 26.
Key Takeaway: The passwords in these emails were largely pulled from breaches several years old, many recipients said theirs came from LinkedIn's 2012 breach, and dozens paid anyway; a fresh breach would make the same automated campaign far more convincing.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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