A threat actor has played a bad trick on the IT team and many of the customers of a popular shoe company. According to ethical hacking specialists, a hacker, self-appointed as “Nathan”, infiltrated the computer systems of the company TOMS Shoes, gaining access to their email list. Once there, the hacker began sending emails with a strange message to TOMS’ newsletter members.
According to some of the users who received this email, the hacker decided to send a little tip to users, which said: “hey you, don’t look at a digital screen all day, there’s a world out there that you’re missing out on”.
Shortly after the emails were sent, users began posting screenshots of the hacker’s message on their social media profiles, mainly Twitter. Eventually the users themselves began to attribute this message to an intrusion on TOMS systems: “Apparently someone hacked the TOMS mail list; times are so hard that even hackers advise you to take things easy,” the Twitter user @AlishaRai said.
Other users questioned the authenticity of the hacking incident, thinking that everything could be a publicity stunt. “TOMS was attacked or his marketing team is getting creative?” posted the user @FunnelFiasco. Even some users less concerned about ethical hacking issues, thanked the hacker for reminding them of the important things in life: “If my personal information was stolen, at least it was a nice guy,” the user @mmmaldoy said.
However, the hacking incident was completely real. The specialized platform Motherboard managed to contact “Nathan”, who claims managed to hack the TOMS mail list relatively easily, although he has already ensured that he had no bad intentions, as he only made this intrusion for fun. “I just wanted to have fun and send a positive message. The truth is that there is nothing useful in hacking a company like TOMS”, said the hacker.
Finally, through a Twitter account, Nathan stated that although he has access to some personal data, he does not intend to misuse this information, although he suggests that he is not the only one able to access this data: “I can only speak for myself; I don’t know if any other hackers have infiltrated TOMS’s systems,” he added.
“Younger people no longer interact with others, they just look at the screen of their smartphones; I hope my message has reached them,” Nathan concluded.
On the other hand, the company acknowledged the hacking via Twitter: “We are aware of the unauthorized activity on our systems that led to the sending of emails to some of our customers. Our ethical hacking team is investigating the incident; more information will be published shortly.”
Specialists in ethical hacking from the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) mention that so far no additional details are known. However, for security users registered in this email list do not respond to any message or click on suspicious links.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
