candw.ky emails hacked, warns ICTA cyber team
(CNS): Cayman’s Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT-KY), a new branch of the Information Technology and Communications Authority dealing with online threats, has issued a public ‘cybersecurity alert’ after it was discovered that some candw.ky email accounts have been compromised. Officials said that there had been unauthorised access to candw.ky accounts by individuals seeking to divert sensitive data to an unintended recipient.
“It has been confirmed that filters have been applied to individuals’ accounts without the owners’ knowledge,” the cyber team said in a release. “These filters cause emails which contain certain words such as ‘account’, ‘payment’, ‘wire’, ‘password’ to be redirected to a third party.”
The ICTA officials said it wasn’t clear yet how the hackers gained access but it is suspected that password information could have been obtained via phishing campaigns or by installing malicious software on individual systems.
In an effort to try and limit the risks CIRT-KY is encouraging candw.ky email account holders to log in to their accounts, remove filters and arrange to have their passwords changed as a matter of urgency by contacting Cable and Wireless at 611 or 1 (800) 804-2994 for assistance.
Category: Crime
The real question is who is still using CandW email and why?
Most of the banks and law firms use email security SaaS, this should be offered to small businesses too.
It is. Many companies offer it to individuals and small companies.
How can we tell if we have been hacked/compromised?
When there is no way to change the password yourself online and when you must ask a Flow employee to supply you with a password.
News article is a bit sensational in tone; the means by which the accounts got compromised could have happened to an email account of any provider, not just LIME/Flow. The article sounds like there is some major weakness at that provider which caused the problem. If spyware or social engineering were used, GMail, Yahoo, Outlook.com other POP/SMTP accounts are just as susceptible and may even have gotten compromised at the same rate.
I love Candy, and Wacky for that matter
These bastards tries to hack my business e-mail weekly by purporting that there is an incoming e-mail from Flow/Lime that needs system updating. They also tried sending me an e-mail purporting that CNB is trying to do updates on their on-line banking system.
Whatever you do, DON’T PRESS NOTHING for an update as you will hand over your entire e-mail contacts and legitimate correspondence to these crooks.
It appears that since Lime/Flow switched over from Google, these fake e-mails have become more prevalent to candw.ky users.
People still use candw.ky?
Yes, it is a brand of passage, like having an 916xxxx cell phone number. There are aspects of life in Cayman over the last 30 years that it would be hard for a newcomer, or perhaps even a younger born Caymanian to appreciate. You will notice that the news story above does not tell you to contact FLOW, or even LIME, it says Cable and Wireless, which is the historical name and underlying entity.
HA!! Was thinking the exact same thing! And I still have my 916 prefix…
We get it, but I still view anyone with a candw.ky address as a technological Luddite.
Pretty much!! Way antiquated!
While there is so. Even nostalgia associated with a CandW email it is an awful thing to have. They change email providers every other year based solely on cost. Also, if you ever change your Internet provider from Flow you will lose your email address. Just get rid of it.
It also very interesting that we have been getting a lot of phishing emails on our website emails hosted by yellow pages. The emails are getting more frequent and are from an unlisted email address that is only used for our yellow pages website contact us option.
Remember, in today’s drive for more eyes and website visits/”hits” – means more $$$.
Don’t forget, we’re the product these days.
Companies will sell your information to the highest bidders (read the Privacy clause). Unless otherwise stated, you may have consented. Sometimes what they can do with your data that you give them is not very clearly stated.
Caveat Emptor.