Wednesday , December 25 2024

Hackers are breaking into AT&T email accounts to steal cryptocurrency

Unknown hackers are breaking into the accounts of people who have AT&T email addresses, and using that access to then hack into the victim’s cryptocurrency exchange’s accounts and steal their crypto, TechCrunch has learned.

At the beginning of the month, an anonymous source told TechCrunch that a gang of cybercriminals have found a way to hack into the email addresses of anyone who has an att.net, sbcglobal.net, bellsouth.net and other AT&T email addresses.

CVE-2024-9474
Sophisticated backdoor found in Palo Alto Networks firewalls: Northwave research

Northwave Cyber Security has found a sophisticated backdoor, LITTLELAMB.WOOLTEA, targeting Palo Alto Networks firewalls. A backdoor was found during a...
Read More
CVE-2024-9474  Sophisticated backdoor found in Palo Alto Networks firewalls: Northwave research

New G-Door Vul Allow Hackers Bypass Microsoft 365 Security With Google Docs

A newly discovered vulnerability called "G-Door" enables malicious actors to bypass Microsoft 365 security by exploiting unmanaged Google Docs accounts....
Read More
New G-Door Vul Allow Hackers Bypass Microsoft 365 Security With Google Docs

CVE-2024-53961
Adobe alerts of critical ColdFusion bug with PoC exploit available

Adobe has issued urgent security updates for ColdFusion versions 2023 and 2021 to fix a critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-53961). This flaw...
Read More
CVE-2024-53961  Adobe alerts of critical ColdFusion bug with PoC exploit available

Splunk targets Bangladeshi market: Investing in local talent

Splunk, a unified security and observability platform turn its focuses on Bangladeshi market. On Monday (23 December) Splunk's local partner...
Read More
Splunk targets Bangladeshi market: Investing in local talent

Critical PHP Zero-Day Vulnerability found in Craft CMS To Gain RCE

A major security flaw in Craft CMS, a popular PHP content management system, has been found, enabling unauthenticated remote code...
Read More
Critical PHP Zero-Day Vulnerability found in Craft CMS To Gain RCE

For US$2.6bn, Mastercard acquires threat intelligence firm Recorded Future

Mastercard has completed its acquisition of Recorded Future, an AI-based threat intelligence provider. Mastercard has acquired the company for $2.65...
Read More
For US$2.6bn, Mastercard acquires threat intelligence firm Recorded Future

Eight New ICS Advisories released by CISA

CISA has released eight advisories on vulnerabilities in Industrial Control Systems (ICS). These vulnerabilities affect essential software and hardware in...
Read More
Eight New ICS Advisories released by CISA

Authority Denies
Hacker claim ransomware attack on Indonesia’s state bank BRI

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), the largest state bank by assets, has assured customers that their data and funds are secure...
Read More
Authority Denies  Hacker claim ransomware attack on Indonesia’s state bank BRI

London-based company “Builder.ai” reportedly exposed 1.2 TB data

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler reported to Website Planet that he found a non-password-protected 1.2 TB dataset containing over 3 million...
Read More
London-based company “Builder.ai” reportedly exposed 1.2 TB data

(CVE-2024-12727, CVE-2024-12728, CVE-2024-12729)
Sophos resolved 3 critical vulnerabilities in Firewall

Sophos has fixed three separate security vulnerabilities in Sophos Firewall.  The vulnerabilities CVE-2024-12727, CVE-2024-12728, and CVE-2024-12729 present major risks, such...
Read More
(CVE-2024-12727, CVE-2024-12728, CVE-2024-12729)  Sophos resolved 3 critical vulnerabilities in Firewall

According to the tipster, the hackers are able to do that because they have access to a part of AT&T’s internal network, which allows them to create mail keys for any user. Mail keys are unique credentials that AT&T email users can use to log into their accounts using email apps such as Thunderbird or Outlook, but without having to use their passwords.

With a target’s mail key, the hackers can use an email app to log into the target’s account and start resetting passwords for more lucrative services, such as cryptocurrency exchanges. At that point it’s game over for the victim, as the hackers can then reset the victim’s Coinbase or Gemini account password via email.

The tipster provided a list of alleged victims. Two of the victims replied, confirming they have been hacked.

AT&T spokesperson Jim Kimberly said that the company “identified the unauthorized creation of secure mail keys, which can be used in some cases to access an email account without needing a password.”

“We have updated our security controls to prevent this activity. As a precaution, we also proactively required a password reset on some email accounts,” the spokesperson said, forcing the account owners to reset their passwords.

AT&T declined to say how many people have been hit in this wave of hacks. “This process wiped out any secure mail keys that had been created,” the spokesperson added.

One victim told TechCrunch that hackers stole $134,000 from his Coinbase account. The second victim said that “it has been happening repeatedly since November 2022 — probably 10 times at this point. I notice it has been done when my Outlook client fails to ‘connect’ and I quickly login to my [AT&T] site and delete their key and create a new one.”

“Very frustrating because it is obvious that the ‘hackers’ have direct access to the database or files containing these customer Outlook keys, and the hackers don’t need to know the user’s AT&T website login to access and change these outlook login keys,” the victim added.

“Hello, my email was compromised back in March of this year and I have done everything I can to reset password, security questions, etc but occasionally I’m still getting emails that a secure mail key has been created on my account without my knowledge,” one user wrote. “They would even delete the email notification so I don’t see it but I recently changed to another email for profile updates so they don’t have access. This sounds like someone still has access to my account but how?”

Another person wrote: “I’ve had the same issue for months and just started again, password wasn’t changed but account locked out and a Mail Key keeps being created somehow.”

The tipster claims that the hackers can “reset any” AT&T email account, and that they have made between $15 and $20 million in stolen crypto. (TechCrunch could not independently verify the tipster’s claim.)

TechCrunch has seen a screenshot apparently coming from a Telegram group chat, where one of the hackers claims that the gang “have the entire AT&T employee database,” which allows them to access an internal AT&T portal for employees called OPUS.

“Only thing we are missing is a certificate, which is the last key to accessing the [AT&T] VPN servers,” the hacker wrote in the Telegram channel, according to the screenshot.

The tipster said that the gang now has access to AT&T’s internal VPN.

Kimberly, the AT&T’s spokesperson, denied that the hackers had any access to internal company systems. “There was no intrusion into any system for this exploit. The bad actors used an API access.”

Check Also

U.S. Weighs Ban on Chinese-Made Router TP-Link: WSJ reports

The US government is considering banning a well-known brand of Chinese-made home internet routers TP-Link …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *