Sunday, April 11, 2021
  • Setup menu at Appearance » Menus and assign menu to Top Bar Navigation
Advertisement
  • AI Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Machine Learning
    • Neural Networks
    • Learn to Code
  • Data
    • Blockchain
    • Big Data
    • Data Science
  • IT Security
    • Internet Privacy
    • Internet Security
  • Marketing
    • Digital Marketing
    • Marketing Technology
  • Technology Companies
  • Crypto News
No Result
View All Result
NikolaNews
  • AI Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Machine Learning
    • Neural Networks
    • Learn to Code
  • Data
    • Blockchain
    • Big Data
    • Data Science
  • IT Security
    • Internet Privacy
    • Internet Security
  • Marketing
    • Digital Marketing
    • Marketing Technology
  • Technology Companies
  • Crypto News
No Result
View All Result
NikolaNews
No Result
View All Result
Home Internet Privacy

Hackers Destroyed VFEmail Service – Deleted Its Entire Data and Backups

February 13, 2019
in Internet Privacy
Hackers Destroyed VFEmail Service – Deleted Its Entire Data and Backups
586
SHARES
3.3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Credit: The Hacker News

What could be more frightening than a service informing you that all your data is gone—every file and every backup servers are entirely wiped out?

You might also like

Hackers Tampered With APKPure Store to Distribute Malware Apps

[WHITEPAPER] How to Achieve CMMC Security Compliance for Your Business

Alert — There’s A New Malware Out There Snatching Users’ Passwords

The worst nightmare of its kind. Right?

But that’s precisely what just happened this week with VFEmail.net, a US-based secure email provider that lost all data and backup files for its users after unknown hackers destroyed its entire U.S. infrastructure, wiping out almost two decades’ worth of data and backups in a matter of few hours for no apparent reason.

Started in 2001 by Rick Romero, VFEmail provides secure, private email services to companies and end users, both free and paid-for.

Describing the attack as “catastrophic,” the privacy-focused email service provider revealed that the attack took place on February 11 and that “all data” on their US servers—both the primary and the backup systems—has been completely wiped out, and it’s seemingly beyond recovery.

“Yes, @VFEmail is effectively gone,” Romero wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. “It will likely not return. I never thought anyone would care about my labor of love so much that they’d want to completely and thoroughly destroy it.”

The VFEmail team detected the attack on February 11 itself after it noticed all the servers for his service went offline without any notice.

vfemail hack

After two hours, the company reported that the attackers had been caught “in the middle of formatting its backup server,” saying that it “fear all US-based data may be lost.”

However, shortly after that VFEmail confirmed that “all the disks on every server” had been wiped out, virtually erasing the company’s entire infrastructure, including mail hosts, virtual machine hosts, and a SQL server cluster, within just a few hours.

“Strangely, not all VMs shared the same authentication, but all were destroyed,” VFEmail explained. “This was more than a multi-password via ssh exploit, and there was no ransom. Just attack and destroy,”—a rare example of a purely destructive attack.

Although it is yet unclear who was behind this destructive attack and how the hack was pulled off, a statement posted to the company’s website pointed to an IP address 94[.]155[.]49[.]9 and the username “aktv,” which appears to be registered in Bulgaria.

Romero believes the hacker behind the above-mentioned IP address most likely used a virtual machine and multiple means of access onto the VFEmail infrastructure to carry out the attack, and as a result, no method of protection, such as 2-factor authentication, would have protected VFEmail from the intrusion.

The official website has now been restored and running, but all secondary domains still remain unavailable. If you are an existing user, expect to find your inboxes empty.

This isn’t the first time the company has been attacked. In 2015, a group of hackers known as the “Armada Collective,” who also targeted Protonmail, Hushmail, and Runbox, launched a DDoS attack against VFEmail after it refused to pay a ransom.


Credit: The Hacker News By: noreply@blogger.com (Swati Khandelwal)

Previous Post

Optimizing Your Company Right Out of Business

Next Post

Google Play Store app rejections up 55% from last year, app suspensions up 66%

Related Posts

Hackers Tampered With APKPure Store to Distribute Malware Apps
Internet Privacy

Hackers Tampered With APKPure Store to Distribute Malware Apps

April 10, 2021
[WHITEPAPER] How to Achieve CMMC Security Compliance for Your Business
Internet Privacy

[WHITEPAPER] How to Achieve CMMC Security Compliance for Your Business

April 10, 2021
Alert — There’s A New Malware Out There Snatching Users’ Passwords
Internet Privacy

Alert — There’s A New Malware Out There Snatching Users’ Passwords

April 10, 2021
Cisco Will Not Patch Critical RCE Flaw Affecting End-of-Life Business Routers
Internet Privacy

Cisco Will Not Patch Critical RCE Flaw Affecting End-of-Life Business Routers

April 9, 2021
Gigaset Android Update Server Hacked to Install Malware on Users’ Devices
Internet Privacy

Gigaset Android Update Server Hacked to Install Malware on Users’ Devices

April 9, 2021
Next Post
Google Play Store app rejections up 55% from last year, app suspensions up 66%

Google Play Store app rejections up 55% from last year, app suspensions up 66%

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Recommended

Plasticity in Deep Learning: Dynamic Adaptations for AI Self-Driving Cars

Plasticity in Deep Learning: Dynamic Adaptations for AI Self-Driving Cars

January 6, 2019
Microsoft, Google Use Artificial Intelligence to Fight Hackers

Microsoft, Google Use Artificial Intelligence to Fight Hackers

January 6, 2019

Categories

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data
  • Blockchain
  • Crypto News
  • Data Science
  • Digital Marketing
  • Internet Privacy
  • Internet Security
  • Learn to Code
  • Machine Learning
  • Marketing Technology
  • Neural Networks
  • Technology Companies

Don't miss it

Leveraging SAP’s Enterprise Data Management tools to enable ML/AI success
Data Science

Leveraging SAP’s Enterprise Data Management tools to enable ML/AI success

April 11, 2021
Machine Learning in Finance Market is exclusively demanding in forecast 2029 | Ignite Ltd, Yodlee, Trill A.I., MindTitan, Accenture, ZestFinance – KSU
Machine Learning

Machine Learning in Finance Market is exclusively demanding in forecast 2029 | Ignite Ltd, Yodlee, Trill A.I., MindTitan, Accenture, ZestFinance – KSU

April 10, 2021
Vue.js vs AngularJS Development in 2021: Side-by-Side Comparison
Data Science

Vue.js vs AngularJS Development in 2021: Side-by-Side Comparison

April 10, 2021
IBM releases Qiskit modules that use quantum computers to improve machine learning
Machine Learning

IBM releases Qiskit modules that use quantum computers to improve machine learning

April 10, 2021
Hackers Tampered With APKPure Store to Distribute Malware Apps
Internet Privacy

Hackers Tampered With APKPure Store to Distribute Malware Apps

April 10, 2021
5 Dominating IoT Trends Positively Impacting Telecom Sector in 2021
Data Science

5 Dominating IoT Trends Positively Impacting Telecom Sector in 2021

April 10, 2021
NikolaNews

NikolaNews.com is an online News Portal which aims to share news about blockchain, AI, Big Data, and Data Privacy and more!

What’s New Here?

  • Leveraging SAP’s Enterprise Data Management tools to enable ML/AI success April 11, 2021
  • Machine Learning in Finance Market is exclusively demanding in forecast 2029 | Ignite Ltd, Yodlee, Trill A.I., MindTitan, Accenture, ZestFinance – KSU April 10, 2021
  • Vue.js vs AngularJS Development in 2021: Side-by-Side Comparison April 10, 2021
  • IBM releases Qiskit modules that use quantum computers to improve machine learning April 10, 2021

Subscribe to get more!

© 2019 NikolaNews.com - Global Tech Updates

No Result
View All Result
  • AI Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Machine Learning
    • Neural Networks
    • Learn to Code
  • Data
    • Blockchain
    • Big Data
    • Data Science
  • IT Security
    • Internet Privacy
    • Internet Security
  • Marketing
    • Digital Marketing
    • Marketing Technology
  • Technology Companies
  • Crypto News

© 2019 NikolaNews.com - Global Tech Updates