Spambot attacks more than 711 million emails, is yours?

[OyaYansa]

711 million email accounts make up the largest spambot ever discovered so far. A figure that breaks all the records to date and which show the security measures, the ineffectiveness of current anti-spam filters and new tricks for the theft of personal data, especially banking.

The biggest spam list has been gathered by a hacker from whom we have little information. The only thing we know is that it was housed in an "open and accessible" server located in the Netherlands and contained inside the passwords of millions of mails to which it sent unwanted mails with malware inserted into a 1x1 gif capable of steal important amounts of data from browsers and software (especially banking information).

This finding was made after Tuesday, for reasons unknown, has been left unprotected and publicly accessible. It was investigator Benkow - as they call it - who alerted last week Troy Hunt, the biggest expert in web security of the presence of an important spam list.

After conducting the relevant investigations and checks, Hunt found the largest list of spam accounts known so far, as explained in a post written on his website, which also indicates that he has taken the relevant legal actions to have this server closed and removed.

In total, the 711 million email accounts have committed a total of 110 data thefts in two and a half years, especially bank information stored in browsers and software. A huge list of SMTP credentials (about 80 million) has also been found in an attempt to circumvent antispam filters.

The method for getting information from this powerful spambot was simple. Each of these emails sent included a GIF of dimensions 1x1 pixels, just invisible. When the user opened this email, a request was automatically sent with his IP and his user to the seridor that hosts this image. A sufficient information so that the spammer can know when the mail has been opened, from where it has done and in which device.

If you want to know if your email accounts and passwords have been affected by this spambot, you can check it in Have I Been Pwned, tool developed by Hunt and has been updated after this the greater theft of data through spam. If your email account has been hacked you must change the access credentials immediately.