Warning about Current Extortion E-mails
Lately a rising amount of extortion attempts with spam e-mails has been sent to members of the University. The originators usually claim to have "hacked" into a person's computer or e-mail account and threaten to publish sensitive information, e.g. video material, about their private life, if their demands are not met. Often a payment of in a crypto currency like Bitcoin is requested. All those claims are mere pretences to scare the receiving person and urge them to give into their demands.
The largest part of incoming spam e-mails is already filtered out by our e-mail system but since the originators of such e-mails quickly switch to new addresses, the delivery into one's inbox can't always be prevented.
If you happen to receive such an e-mail, take the following steps:
- Never give in to their demands.
- Don't open any attachments from that sender and never reply to such an e-mail.
- Extortion is a crime and should be reported to the police, even if the chances to find the criminals behind it are very small in this casen.
- Move the e-mail into the spam or trash folder of your e-mail application.
Of course you always should also follow our general recommendations for IT security, like regular installation of updates, usage of an antivirus application and the safe handling of credentials.
Additional resources on this topic: