Romanian cybersecurity experts say they have identified a phishing campaign that is targeting tens of thousands of Romanians.
Hackers claim they have access to users’ accounts and have compromising images of their online activity, a statement from Bitdefender said on Tuesday.
„The attackers use emails that appear to be replies sent automatically to emails sent by the victim, in the hope that they will go through the spam filters and reach the users’ inbox,” the statement added.
The phishing campaign which began last summer is now mainly targeting Eastern European countries, with a focus on Romania, Croatia and Hungary.
Since July, hackers have been bombarding potential targets with phony messages. Attackers use the pretext of security breaches claiming the victims have had their accounts and passwords violated by other hackers who are using their data.
Some victims fall for the trick and hand out sensitive information. They believe claims that there are video and audio recordings of their personal life”, Bitdefender said.
Victims are given 48 hours to pay the attackers the equivalent of 1,200 euros in Bitcoin. They also advised by the attackers not to respond to the message received and to not contact the police.
According to Bitdefender data, more than half emails targeting users in Romania come from local IPs.
They recommend updating all used passwords at regular intervals, not using the same password on multiple accounts; not responding to threatening messages, especially from those requesting payments, and to report blackmail attempts to authorities.
Users should also install a high-performance security solution on all devices used; and enable 2-step authentication for each account to reduce the risk of passwords being breached.
Bitdefender, a leader in IT security, was founded in 2001. The company has customers in 170 countries and offices around the world.
