In June 2016 the well-known Toronto, Canada-based Internet Media firm VerticalScope has been hacked, hackers have compromised Verticalscope.com, the company chose to keep this information secret from users instead of requiring them to change their passwords.
Alex Holden (security researcher) has told Krebs last week that attackers were selling access to Verticalscope.com and a number of other websites served by the company.
The researcher said that he suspected someone was attempting to resell data stolen in the 2016 breach. Holden reached one of the hackers selling the data and was given screenshots showing that Verticalscope.com and many other services were truly compromised with a backdoor known as a “Web shell.”
According to Krebs :
“Holden said the intruders obfuscated certain details in the screenshots that gave away exactly where the Web shells were hidden on Verticalscope.com, but that they forgot to blur out a few critical details — allowing him to locate at least two backdoors on Veriticalscope’s Web site. ”
The researcher also was able to use a second screenshot the hackers shared which gave the same backdoor web shell on Toyotanation.com, one of Verticalscope’s most-visited forums.
Verticalscope said that the company had discovered an intrusion on six 6 of its Web sites, including Toyotanation.com.