ZDNet reported that a hacker has been selling credentials to email accounts belonging to hundreds of executives around the world. This access can be used for further exploitations like participating in the company’s email threads, tricking employees to wire them money, or order access for something sensitive.
Paid Access to Hundreds of Email Accounts
Emails are the prime form of communication incorporates. These are formal and have every feature that corporates wanted. Thus, it’s an interesting target for hackers too.
In a recent incident, a hacker in a Russian-speaking underground forum has been selling credentials to email accounts of C-level executives.
These executives belong to small and medium-sized businesses from all around the world, and credentials to their Office 365 and email accounts have been selling from $100 to $1,500, depending on the level they belong to and the company’s users size.
As per ZDNet, a source has contacted the seller to verify the data and received valid credentials for a US company’s CEO and an EU-based retail store’s CFO. These credentials are different from the other two posted for the seller to justify his claims.
The hacker has refused to reveal how he had obtained these credentials but said he had hundreds of more to sell. As per KELA, a threat intel firm, the seller is said to be the same person who earlier showed interest in buying the “Azor logs” – the data collected by AzorUlt trojan from infected systems.
Access to these email accounts can be used for various exploits. For example, an executive can ask any of his low-level employees to send him money for a business purpose, or allow access to more sensitive repositories.
Preventing such mishaps can be done by using the 2FA to sensitive accounts like email, which makes the primary credentials useless if the hacker is unable to get 2FA codes.
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