Warning: email based attack. Civil Society Watch Out!

CyberPeace Institute

Are you working in a Civil Society Organization? Have you been in contact with USAID recently? You could be under attack without knowing it.

On May 25, 2021, the emailing platform of USAID* was compromised. 

According to Microsoft, 3000 email accounts have been targeted so far in 150 organizations active in 24 countries: 25% of these email accounts belong to NGOs. 

The email addresses [email protected] and [email protected] are being used to distribute malicious content.

Source: Microsoft

*USAID leads international development and humanitarian efforts to save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance and help people progress beyond assistance.) 

The email addresses [email protected] and [email protected] are legitimate addresses: they are unlikely to be flagged as spam or phishing attempts: if you receive an email from them, do not click on any link, open any attachment, or forward the email. Contact your IT administrator immediately. 

More details about this incident including mitigation steps can be found here

Has your organization been impacted? Contact us, we want to talk to you!

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