Some students from an institute in Campinas, linked to the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), received an email with threats and demands for bitcoin as payment. The students’ attention was drawn to the fact that the message contained personal information about them, such as name, telephone number and even address.
The police have already been called to investigate the matter and clarify whether it really is a data breach. If confirmed, the institution that had data on 74,000 students released much of their student information from their systems.
According to information disclosed by EPTV, a subsidiary of Globo in Campinas, the educational institution has denied any leakage of its databases.
Campinas students receive bitcoin requests, what can happen?
Students who allegedly leaked data studying at the Instituto de Educação Empresarial (IBE), in Campinas, told G1 that they received digital threats. The educational institution was affiliated with FGV until 2021, when they offered courses in collaboration.
The message received by students caught the attention of the victims as the person responsible for sending it is said to be a hacker. For example, the email asks students to send 1 million reais in bitcoin under penalty of having their data leaked.
As the price of bitcoin surpasses R$132,000 today, students would have to pay 7.5 bitcoins to the hacker, according to Mercado Crypto data.
In a note, the IBE says attempts have been made to attack its registration system, but no data has been leaked, i.e. the institution denies any incident.
In any case, students are concerned about the use of their data, since the possible hacker, when asking for bitcoin, sent an email containing the name, telephone number, CPF, RG and address of the victims.
FGV says leaked data is old
Asked by Security Report, FGV clarified that its systems also did not record any cybernetic incidents of data breaches.
However, the institution claims that student data, used by a hacker, may have been leaked from IBE, an institution that had a partnership until 2021.
It is therefore not clear whether there really was a leak in the IBE and what the damage was, but the situation is already being analyzed by the police.
In recent years, bitcoin scams have gained ground on the internet as the digital currency is safe for transactions from anywhere in the world. For example, the self-help email scam has been circulating since 2019, worrying many victims.
One way to check if the email is available in a leaked database is to type “have i been pwned?” into the website, which can identify the source of the address leak.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
