Email hacking is often the jump off point for financial hacking, but it’s also where ransomware and other attacks can start. Here is what typically happens:
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- A hacked email account provides access to a user’s contact list providing additional hacking opportunities and exposing friends, colleagues or customers.
- It is common for a hacker to send an email to everyone in the contact list using the hacked user’s address. Placed within this email will be a file attachment containing a virus or malware.
- The hacker’s hoped for response? One or more recipients clicking on the attachment without thinking. Why? Because it was sent by someone they know.
This is how cyber attacks begin for an individual user, their contacts and other users if they are on the same network.
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