Bomb threats sent to thousands of schools across Europe this week came from a compromised email account at a Taiwanese university, the latest in a series of hoax threats that have targeted airports and newsrooms using messages sent from legitimate institutions. Taiwan’s Da-Yeh University said it suspended the account used on Wednesday to send the emails, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
Officials in the Colombian capital Bogotá said last week they were investigating a potential hack impacting a city health agency where other hoax emails originated. The use of hijacked accounts at real and relatively trustworthy institutions has enabled the hoaxers to send messages that pass authentication checks and avoid triggering spam filters.
It also introduces challenges for investigators attempting to find out who was responsible. Stolen credentials are widely traded and exploited both by criminals and state-sponsored hackers.
Security company Proofpoint told Recorded Future News that threats it examined last week all came from compromised accounts rather than forged addresses. No government has attributed the hoaxes to a specific actor, although the Irish government said last week “it seems likely that this is a coordinated campaign of disruption.”
