The American multinational telecommunication company, Verizon is currently facing peril. A hacker got access to the database which contained all the information of the company’s employees. This database contained the complete names of the employees, their ID numbers, email addresses, and phone numbers.
This directory of employees’ information is authorized as the unknown hacker called on some of the employees’ numbers to confirm it last week. In a conversation with the motherboard, the fraudster told the employees of the company are a fool.
The hacker has demanded a handsome amount of $250,000 from the corporation in return for not disclosing the personal information of their employees in public. He said that the company is free to communicate with them regarding this deal to save their employees’ personal information coming out in public.
In his email to the motherboard, a spokesman of the multinational conglomerate confirmed this data breach. He said that the corporation was recently approached by a scammer. The fraudster threatened them, saying that he would release the employee database if he did not pay the ransom. Adding further, the spokesperson said that they believe the scammer has no subtle data and they have no plans to involve with the person anymore. He also said that the company takes the responsibility to safeguard their employee’s data quite seriously and they take necessary and strong steps to secure their entire corporation.
According to reports, this unknown scammer got access to the employee information directory by accidentally linking to the computer of a Verizon employee. In the email sent to Vice the hackers have mentioned that they compelled the staff of Verizon to grant them access to his computer by pretending themselves as internal support. After receiving permission to access the computer they initiated a code that collected all the data from the device.
Although this database does not contain delicate information such as Social Security Numbers, passwords, or credit card numbers yet this data breach can be hazardous. The statement given by the spokesperson of the company that the datasheet is collected by the hacker is not sensitive is considerably wrong as this information can be used by the scammer to imitate himself as an employee of Verizon with no difficulty and access further delicate information.
Notably, it is seen in recent years that these fraudsters can hijack the phone numbers of people and go through their call logs and messages leading to getting access to their online accounts. So, these multinational companies should now start training their staff to avoid this risk of getting tricked by someone online claiming themselves to be internal support for the security of their company’s employees’ data
