ICANN has been hacked by a Bunch of Phishers

Global internet governing body ICANN has just been hacked by a bunch of phishers.

ICANN has suffered an attack by a group of hacking experts. And the results are not good. It is investigating the break in and what has been revealed is that a spear phishing attack was responsible for the mishap. This “charge of the night brigade” began some time in November of this year.

Emails were sent from the home domain to staff members. This entangled state of affairs led to the complete stoppage of the email accounts of many of the employees of ICANN. In the current month of this year, it was found that these phishing attempts also compromised some other systems besides the email accounts of ICANN.

The CDZS was infiltrated by the phishers and all the files were corrupted. Everything from names and addresses to fax and phone numbers got hacked for better or for worse.

The passwords were deactivated later on as a precaution. Those who frequent ICANN /4/employ new passwords. Then as far as the ICANN Wiki is concerned, some of the stuff found on it got revealed to the hackers.   

There were two other systems that also got hacked. They were the ICANN weblog and the ICANN WHOIS info portal. However, it was a miracle of sorts that the two sites were not affected by the hacker’s nefarious designs. In fact, they were as intact as if they had remained untouched by those grubby hands.

No other systematic damage seems to have been inflicted. And even if it is found that there have been minor changes in the extensive files and info-wares of ICANN, the damage control teams will see to it that the small chinks in the system are stopped in the nick of time.

It is a big relief though that the IANA systems have been free from these assaults by the hacksmiths. They were the most sensitive and crucial of the systems and their virginity ensures the overall structural survival of ICANN.

In the beginning of 2014, ICANN began some changes in its security shield programs. These were what offered resistance to the attempts by the hackers to infiltrate the system.

Had it not been for this defense design, things could have ended up much worse than how they stand at present. Additional security measures are being implemented now and they will guarantee that no more hackers will gain access to the ICANN accounts. 

Source: ICANN