Bitcoin Ransom Emails - Netlink Computer Inc

[dee]

I've had a few emails over the last couple days doing the old "we are a group of hackers who infected your computer. We have control and took videos from your camera of you banging one out to porn. Send us a billion dollars in bitcoin to this address or we will send the videos to your granny and her mates "

They then mention a password they have which is correct and you recognise that they've got by hacking some old website/forum you have an account with.

Now...i'm not worried as i always at least cover my camera when i'm banging one out to porn so I know it's not true.And any password I use on anything publc facing is not critical. However, in dealing with it and getting my server provider to scan for malware etc they said this :

Hello Damon,

The case has been reviewed by our system administrators and the emails you receive are very likely linked to the security breach of the Canadian company Netlink Computer Inc. You can find more information on this here:

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/09/24/bankrupt-ncix-customer-data-resold-on-craigslist/

I dont think this is the case for me, as i cant ever remember dealing with them but gist of it is that the company went bust and sold all the equipment with all data on. Its been handed around. If anyone has had any business with them your banking details are likely out there doing the rounds. 3.8 million customers.

 

[ian]

Same for me, usual email once or twice a month, but this time with an old password of mine. It was a legacy email address (work) that just auto-forwards on, but I'm grateful for the email as it gave me a prompt to reassess my security again.

 

[Adam H]

Yeah getting them almost daily at the moment, they are using the exploited password database to try and make people think they know your passwords, all of mine have been from a password I used years ago, the result of password and email matching most likely from from the Anti Public Combo list and Exploit.in exposure.

Type your email into : https://haveibeenpwned.com/

It will tell you where your details have been exposed from.

 

[dee]

Type your email into : https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Cheers... thats great if legitimate checker. Not great if youve been nailed but you know what I mean.

 

[Adam H]

You'll find most people who have a fair amount of online activity will have been pawned especially through the Anti Public Combo list as that was huge amounts of leaked data. That website is legitimate.

 

[timter51]

I have 10 breaches on there for my 18+ year old email address that I used to use for everything (and still do use a lot...). Finding that out on this website earlier this year made me finally join Dashlane, I now have unique high strength passwords for everything I do online... some decent peace of mind.

 

[RobM]

Been getting them too - one with my password used to sign up for that service - dropbox. Nice. Thankfully I use a 'disposable' password and email address separate from my banking info but it does make you wary about signing up for anything with a single password. Any site that can retrieve your password for you assume is compromisable. Any site that forces you to reset it instead is likely using an encryption algorithm that can't be reversed - these are far more secure. Whenever I sign up for a site I always go to the 'lost password' section to see how likely it is for my email and password to end up doing the rounds as it seems a lot of well paid people have high school knowledge of databases.

 

[boxerdog]

I`m also getting them daily at the moment.
Not a problem for me though

 

[dee]

I think most of us here are probably more savvy than your average punter. That said, i've had to force myself to not use the same password for non critical stuff recently. We all like convenience . I also always use 2FA wherever possible these days for banking / crypto.

Always good to get a reminder not to be complacent !