Some students at an academy in Campinas linked to the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) have received an email containing threats and demands for bitcoin as payment. Students noticed that the messages contained personal information about them, such as names, phone numbers and even addresses.
Police have been called to investigate the case and clarify whether it was indeed a data breach. If confirmed, colleges with data on 74,000 students would have leaked vast amounts of student information outside of their systems.
According to EPTV, the Campinas-based affiliate of Globo, the educational institution has denied any leaks of its database.
Campinas Student Receives Bitcoin Request, What Happens?
Students who allegedly studied a data breach at the Instituto de Educação Empresarial (IBE) in Campinas claimed to G1 that they had received a Crypto threat. The educational institution is linked to FGV until 2021 and they collaborate to provide prices.
The messages the students received caught the attention of the victims, as those responsible for sending the messages were dubbed hackers. Therefore, the email asks the students to send 1 million reais in bitcoin or their data will be compromised.
Since the price of bitcoin today exceeds 132,000 reais, according to data crypto by Mercado, the student should have paid the hacker 7.5 bitcoins.
In a note, the IBE said an attempt was made to hack its registration system, but no data was leaked, meaning the agency denies any incidents.
Regardless, the students were concerned about the use of their data, as would-be hackers sent an email containing the victim’s name, phone, CPF, RG, and address while demanding bitcoin.
FGV says leaked data is old
FGV sought clarification in its security report that its systems had not recorded any cybernetic incidents of data breaches.
However, the institution claims that student data used by the hackers may have been leaked from the IBE, with which it has a partnership until 2021.
Therefore, it is not clear whether the IBE was actually leaked and damaged, but the police are already analyzing the situation.
Bitcoin scams have flourished on the internet in recent years because the Crypto currency is safe to trade anywhere in the world. For example, email scams about yourself have been circulating since 2019, worrying many victims.
One way to check if an email is available in any leaked database is to type “Did I get scammed?” on the website, which can identify the source of the leaked address.
Source of information: Compiled from LIVECOINS by 0x Information.Copyright belongs to the author, without permission, may not be reproduced