Politics & Government
After Email Hack, HoCo Exec's Account Back Online
If you received an email from the hacked account, Howard County government officials advise deleting it without opening.
HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The email account of County Executive Calvin Ball was hacked, Howard County government officials said in a statement Sunday night. Anyone who received an email with "Account Cancellation" from him in the subject should delete it immediately.
Do not open the email, officials advise. It looks like it is related to a Netflix account and was created by someone who hacked into Ball's Constant Contact account at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 23, county officials reported on Monday.
Using various mailing lists associated with Ball's account, the unauthorized user created three "phishing" campaigns and sent them to 35,000 people in his contacts, according to authorities.
Phishing is an online form of fraud where criminals use malicious links to extract information.
Approximately 13 percent of the recipients, or 4,550 users, opened the email; and less than 2 percent of those clicked the link, according to Howard County officials.
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+ List My Business"There was no data exported from this account," Howard County government officials reported on Monday, Dec. 24, following discussions with Constant Contact and county technology officials.
Constant Contact suspended the account around 8:40 p.m. on Sunday due to suspicious activities and disabled the link with the phishing emails.
"The account is now back online," county officials reported on Christmas Eve.
"County Executive Ball expresses sincere apologies to those who received the email," according to a statement from Howard County. "He urges, as an extra precaution, to update your passwords regularly to ensure your information is secure."
Below is a screenshot of the email:
URGENT: Tonight, the Constant Contact account for Howard County Executive Calvin Ball - @HoCoGovExec - was compromised. An email with the subject line “Account Cancellation” was distributed. If you received, please delete it immediately. Here is a screen shot of that email: pic.twitter.com/XvpXDbEERJ
— Howard County Gov't (@HoCoGov) December 24, 2018
Image via Shutterstock.
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