There are a plethora of things that our predecessors were and we are not. Even though we are connected to them at some level, there remains a deep chasm of difference between the ideologies we practise today and the ones they used to do in their time. It is not a matter of which ideology beats the other. Both were designed to function within a particular era, thus there is no equal ground upon which a comparison can be done. However, even though it’s fairer to treat the ins and outs of different eras as isolated elements, we cannot help but notice certain areas where one generation actually edged the other. For instance, unlike the previous generation that was more cautious and thoughtful about everything, the current one is more impulsive and careless. This changed behaviour is mainly born out of our altered surroundings, which are brimming with things to explore, and in order to get to everything, we sometimes forget to consider all the essential elements. That’s exactly how seeds are sown for situations like America’s cybersecurity crisis.
However, even though we do have a tendency to give away our personal details rather cheaply, the entire blame is not ours to shoulder, at least not anymore. Yes, some attacks still require a degree of action from the victim, but the threat actors are seemingly moving on from on that. Now, even if the platform you are giving your information to is a trusted one, the details are still vulnerable. This was confirmed when fast-food giant, Chipotle announced they have been hit by a cyberattack.
Emails of Chipotle’s customers were stolen from company’s email marketing service, Mailgun. As per the reports provided by Inky, the organization that discovered the breach, the hackers have already sent out over 121 phishing emails from Chipotle’s Mailgun account between July 13 and July 16. 14 of these mails were sent as an impersonation of USAA bank to gather financial data, 2 were typical vishing attacks (containing malicious voicemail message attachments), whereas the remaining 105 emails were focused on redirecting the user to a fake Microsoft website where their credentials would be stolen.
An interesting fact relating to this case is its similarity with the Nobelium attack that targeted the same email marketing service earlier this year in May. However, evidence to connect these two cases is still scarce.