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Unsecured backup exposes global spam farm
A notorious spamming organisation responsible for the sending of up to a billion unwanted messages a day has inadvertently revealed its entire operation by failing to secure a network-available backup of its operations.
A cooperative effort between Mackeeper’s Security Research Centre, CSOonline and Spamhaus took place last month when Chris Vickery, one of Mackeeper’s operatives, discovered an unsecured and publicly exposed repository of company backup files containing damning information about the practices of River City Media (RCM) – an initiative led by notorious spammers Matt Ferris and Alvin Slocombe.
According to Mackeeper, RCM positions itself as a legitimate marketing company, subject to the regulations around mailshots, while surreptitiously {sending} approaching 1 billion illegitimate spam mails daily.
...
The database exposed contains 1.4 billion user details, including (but not limited to) full names, IP addresses and, in many cases, real-world addresses. Many of the entries are ‘legacy’ in nature, deriving from information gathered over many years, and often out of date. But Mackeeper’s cursory investigations on social media reveal that a great proportion of the entries appear to be valid.
https://thestack.com/security/2017/03/06/unsecured-backup-exposes-global-spam-farm/
A cooperative effort between Mackeeper’s Security Research Centre, CSOonline and Spamhaus took place last month when Chris Vickery, one of Mackeeper’s operatives, discovered an unsecured and publicly exposed repository of company backup files containing damning information about the practices of River City Media (RCM) – an initiative led by notorious spammers Matt Ferris and Alvin Slocombe.
According to Mackeeper, RCM positions itself as a legitimate marketing company, subject to the regulations around mailshots, while surreptitiously {sending} approaching 1 billion illegitimate spam mails daily.
...
The database exposed contains 1.4 billion user details, including (but not limited to) full names, IP addresses and, in many cases, real-world addresses. Many of the entries are ‘legacy’ in nature, deriving from information gathered over many years, and often out of date. But Mackeeper’s cursory investigations on social media reveal that a great proportion of the entries appear to be valid.
https://thestack.com/security/2017/03/06/unsecured-backup-exposes-global-spam-farm/