A recent Trend Micro study revealed that in third quarter 2015, a worst-case security scenario occurred when leaked information from a data breach was used for further attacks, such as blackmail and extortion.
In early July, the Italian information technology company, Hacking Team was hacked and more than 400GB of confidential data was made public. The company, which sells tools that legally intercept communications used by governments and law enforcement agencies, had previously said that it does not sell the product to oppressive governmental regimes. The leak, which covered Hacking Team’s business practices, contradicted the company’s official statement, and also included tools provided by the company to carry out attacks, including a number of exploits that targeted Adobe Flash Player and Windows.
