Can Someone Email Your Contacts?

Learn how a device or server compromise may leak your contacts!

If you ever got a scam email blackmailing you into giving them any kind of money, you may have noticed that they threaten to email your contacts, but can they?

Episode #11-30 released on March 23, 2021

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In typical fashion, I will be explaining this from beginning to end. Your contacts are probably stored on your computer, phone, tablet, or the cloud in a service like an online email account or as a backup.

In order to access any of those contacts, they need direct access meaning that they either hacked the online services, compromised the encryption, and decrypted the information or they infected your computer in an attempt to access your contacts.

If they hacked the online service, chances are your contacts would, also, have been compromised on their own accounts but considering that most publicly traded and even smaller companies encrypt everything, the odds of a group decrypting all the information and having useful information is less and less with each going day.

As for your computer, phones, tablets, it really does depend on you and your device. Most people do not really store contacts on computers or do so because of business. All Windows machines at the very least have Windows Defender which would detect viral and malware infections notifying you. Other platforms have fewer antivirus options but are, also, less prone to malware issues.

Many portable devices are, also, less prone to issues with viruses and hacking, especially Apple Devices, but like Android, they can still be targeted. You can find antivirus software for your phones and tablets, just like for your computer, but you need to remember that the first line of defense will always be how you access the Internet itself. If you are careful, are get the applications from reputable developers, and do not visit unsavory websites you should be safer.

This being all said, yes, someone can access your contacts, and email them. That being said, an email claiming they can, is not enough proof that they can do that, and, also, it is not worth giving anyone a cent when they make such claims. Malicious groups will cease these tactics when they cease to generate revenue for those groups. Do not pay those ransoms and do not believe anything they claim, even if it is potentially possible, it does not mean they actually can do it themselves.

Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net

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