hackers

by Matthew Skelly Matthew Skelly No Comments

FBI Records, Over 700 Million Passwords Posted Online In Two Major Hacks

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a trove of personal information and secret government files that were posted online in the past month. In what the Guardian describes as the “largest collection of breached data in history,” over 770 million usernames and passwords were posted to an online hacking forum.

Experts said that the massive cache of information was not the result of a single breach, but likely a collection of data from previous attacks by different groups. While most of the information was already known to the researchers, at least 140 million records appeared to be new.

In a separate breach at the Oklahoma Securities Commission, millions of sensitive FBI records were stolen and posted online. The information was relatively easy to find because it was stored on a server with no password that could be accessed by anybody who had an internet connection.

“It represents a compromise of the entire integrity of the Oklahoma Department of Securities’ network,” Chris Vickery, head of research at UpGuard, the company that discovered the leak, told Forbes, “It affects an entire state level agency.”

The FBI files date back to 2012 and included “spreadsheets with agent-filled timelines of interviews related to investigations, emails from parties involved in myriad cases and bank transaction histories.” The hackers also posted agency emails dating back at least 17 years, and thousands of social security numbers. They also managed to get passwords which would give them remote access to other computers in the agency, but it is unclear if those machines were impacted.

posted by Bill Galluccio

by Matthew Skelly Matthew Skelly No Comments

New email scam…and it’s a tricky one!

So here’s one that almost got by us. It’s a new take on the old “you have an invoice, package, parking ticket” scam where a virus loaded doc is attached to an email. The twist is, this one immediately puts you on the defensive by accusing YOU of being the scammer. Take a look.

You know what? That’s some scary stuff! And of course, my first instinct is to defend the electric company and look at that doc. But then I looked a little closer.

Neither I nor Mike have ever had that conversation on the phone. I also can’t help but notice a gap in the “WWW” on that link. Finally, if I hover over that doc link, it takes me to a VERY diffrent link than what is displayed.

End of the day, it’s just another email scam. A little more inventive than most, but a scam nonetheles. Keep your eyes open!

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