Database of 200M-Plus Potential 'Sextortion' Victims Published

Cofense Labs has published a database of more than 200 million accounts that it says are compromised and being targeted in a "sextortion" scam. The company says that it is publishing the account information with the goal of allowing potential victims and their employers to deal with the threat proactively to minimize damage.

According to Cofense, their researchers discovered a botnet for hire in June — a botnet primarily used to send emails with messages threatening embarrassing exposure if extortion payments are not made.

Cofense reports that its analysis shows the extortionists are recycling email and addresses exposed in data breaches going back at least 10 years in the hopes of wringing new value out of old criminal assets.

Individuals and companies can check to see whether domains or specific addresses are on the exposed list on this form.

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