Websites worldwide targeted by novel extortion scam

Websites around the world are being impacted by a new widespread data extortion scheme by Team Montesano claiming to have compromised their servers and asking $2,500 to prevent data leaks, BleepingComputer reports. Non-targeted emails with the subject line "Your website, databases and emails has been hacked" have been sent by the attackers across various verticals, including government entities, large corporations, and personal bloggers. Such extortion emails which contain warnings of data leaks, reputational damage, and site blacklisting should recipients refuse to pay the ransom have also been sent to Have I Been Breached creator Troy Hunt and BleepingComputer reporter Ax Sharma. The extortion message also details that sensitive data has been accessed and exfiltrated by attackers after identifying and leveraging several website and company computer vulnerabilities. BleepingComputer noted that two bitcoin addresses are currently being used by the attackers for the scheme, with one of the addresses showing transactions that signify potential payment of extortion demands.