Cyber hijackers hit free accounts

A GROUP of Spanish speaking hackers have been hijacking free email accounts and are refusing to give back emails and contact lists unless the user pays them a ransom.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Hotmail users are logging onto their accounts and finding that all their contacts and messages have been deleted. However there is a message from the hackers, in Spanish, which says the victim will have to pay up or lose the lot. Ransom fees are not mentioned.

According to security outfit Websense, the hackers gained access to the email accounts by infecting internet cafe computers with a keystroke logger, allowing them to obtain the username and password of each person that logs in.

It is not clear if anyone has paid the hackers, or if they got their data back if they did so.

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