A Day in the Life of an Email Bombing Attack
6:45 AM – The First Signs of Trouble
Jenna Burk, the CFO of a mid-sized financial company, wakes up to the usual buzz of her phone. But today, something’s off—her phone’s notification center is flooded. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of emails are pouring in. Every major retailer, newsletter, and mailing list she’s ever interacted with (and plenty she hasn’t) seems to have suddenly decided to email her all at once.
7:10 AM – A Flood Turns into a Tsunami
Jenna logs into her corporate laptop, hoping to make sense of the chaos. Her inbox is practically unusable, with a never-ending stream of subscription confirmations, marketing emails, and spam. She tries deleting them, but for every email she clears, three more arrive. Her phone’s email app crashes. The IT department isn’t open yet, so she decides to wait.
8:30 AM – An Urgent Message Arrives
As she’s scrolling through the mess, a Microsoft Teams notification pops up. It’s an IT support specialist, Mark, from her company’s outsourced IT team.
“Hey Jenna, we noticed some suspicious activity on your account. You’re getting flooded with emails—likely a targeted attack. Can you hop on a quick call so I can remote in and help?”
Jenna sighs in relief. Finally, someone is aware of the issue. She clicks the provided link to start a remote support session.
8:40 AM – The Hook is Set
As “Mark” takes control of her machine, he moves fast—too fast. She watches as he types in the command line, disables multi-factor authentication, and accesses her Microsoft 365 admin panel.
“Just cleaning up a few things here…” he says.
But then she notices something strange: he isn’t just fixing her email settings—he’s creating a new admin user.
“Wait, what are you—”
Her laptop screen goes black.
8:45 AM – The Real IT Team Calls
Jenna’s desk phone rings. It’s someone from her company’s actual IT department.
“Jenna, have you noticed anything unusual with your email?”
“I—yes! I just spoke to Mark from IT, and he was helping me.”
A pause.
“Jenna, we don’t have anyone named Mark.”
Her stomach drops.
9:00 AM – The Ransom Note Appears
Her laptop reboots. The screen loads, but instead of her familiar Windows desktop, a black screen with red text stares back at her:
“YOUR FILES HAVE BEEN ENCRYPTED. PAY 10 BTC TO RECOVER YOUR DATA.”
Cyber criminals have taken control. The company is now in crisis mode.
What would you do?
Learn more in tomorrow’s blog: How To Protect Against Email Bombing.
