botnets
Operation Endgame – 300 Widomaker.com Email Accounts Found Among 16.5M Compromised Accounts
What Happened?
Between May 27 and May 29, 2024, an international law enforcement operation, Operation Endgame, seized over 100 cybercrime servers worldwide. It’s being called the largest ever operation against botnets.
Approximately 300 (active and inactive) @widomaker.com email accounts, and passwords, were identified as having been potentially compromised for use by the Endgame cybercrime groups, sometime during the time period the groups were active. This means the affected users’ passwords were potentially compromised via remote access trojans (RATs) or info-stealers (malware installed on the users’ computers). To find out more, review the article and video, from Microsoft, about How malware can infect your PC…
According to Spamhaus, “The botnet operators in question relied on compromised accounts to target victims and spread malicious emails. If a receiver interacted with one of these emails, it is highly likely that their device was infected. As a result, they probably became part of the targeted botnets.”
More details on Operation Endgame may be found at the links below…
- [Bleeping Computer] Police seize over 100 malware loader servers, arrest four cybercriminals
- [Krebs on Security] ‘Operation Endgame’ Hits Malware Delivery Platforms
- [Europol] Largest ever operation against botnets hits dropper malware ecosystem
- [Troy Hunt / Have I Been Pwned (HIBP)] Operation Endgame
What Should I Do?
The easiest way to tell if your email address is in the Operation Endgame data, or other data breaches, is to sign up, for free, to be notified when your email address appears in known data breaches, or is found, via law enforcement action, to be compromised, like in the case of Operation Endgame. The Have I Been Pwned notification service is free to individuals. Visit the HIBP website, via the link below, then click “Notify me” to sign up for notifications.
Most importantly, if you find that your email address(es) is/are in the Operation Endgame data, or other data breaches, you should scan your computers (or other devices) for malware, and reset the passwords of the affected email accounts to prevent further abuse. You may Contact our office for assistance.
