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One company received nearly 300,000 spam emails in just one day, forcing it to shut down affected accounts.
Scammers send spam emails to users around the world. Security specialists fear that cybercriminals are testing a new malicious tool that is destined to become a serious threat to businesses and consumers in 2021.
Experts from Vade Secure have recorded a sharp increase in the number of spam emails reaching users' mailboxes in Italy, France, Denmark and the United States. One company received about 300,000 spam emails in just one day, forcing it to shut down affected accounts and reset credentials.
The spam wave is not easy, as emails are placed in the Inbox, bypassing the protection levels. Vade Security suspects that criminals are using a tool called Email Appender, which was first discovered by Gemini Advisory in October 2020 and is sold on the darknet by subscription.
Email Appender allows cybercriminals to verify the credentials of a compromised account, configure a proxy to avoid IP address detection, and generate malicious email. Email Appender assumes a list of compromised credentials. Going through logins and passwords, the program tries to log in to the email server, open the victim's mailbox and add its malicious message to it.
The tool has a user interface that allows a hacker to customize email by changing the display name of the sender's address and creating a reply address.
“Email Appender's subscription-based distribution is a warning sign of what is about to happen in cybercrime-as-a-service. The illegal services available on the dark web allow low-tech criminals to conduct successful ransomware attacks. If Email Appender and other similar tools continue to be successful, they could become very popular in the cybercriminal community. In the past, we have seen hackers test their methods in the consumer market before entering the business market. Consumers are sometimes less security savvy than businesses, which means they are a relatively easy target and allow criminals to learn new methods, ”the experts explained.
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Scammers send spam emails to users around the world. Security specialists fear that cybercriminals are testing a new malicious tool that is destined to become a serious threat to businesses and consumers in 2021.
Experts from Vade Secure have recorded a sharp increase in the number of spam emails reaching users' mailboxes in Italy, France, Denmark and the United States. One company received about 300,000 spam emails in just one day, forcing it to shut down affected accounts and reset credentials.
The spam wave is not easy, as emails are placed in the Inbox, bypassing the protection levels. Vade Security suspects that criminals are using a tool called Email Appender, which was first discovered by Gemini Advisory in October 2020 and is sold on the darknet by subscription.
Email Appender allows cybercriminals to verify the credentials of a compromised account, configure a proxy to avoid IP address detection, and generate malicious email. Email Appender assumes a list of compromised credentials. Going through logins and passwords, the program tries to log in to the email server, open the victim's mailbox and add its malicious message to it.
The tool has a user interface that allows a hacker to customize email by changing the display name of the sender's address and creating a reply address.
“Email Appender's subscription-based distribution is a warning sign of what is about to happen in cybercrime-as-a-service. The illegal services available on the dark web allow low-tech criminals to conduct successful ransomware attacks. If Email Appender and other similar tools continue to be successful, they could become very popular in the cybercriminal community. In the past, we have seen hackers test their methods in the consumer market before entering the business market. Consumers are sometimes less security savvy than businesses, which means they are a relatively easy target and allow criminals to learn new methods, ”the experts explained.
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