Authors, agents and book publishers in several states have been the target of a strange phishing campaign for several years, which is not only puzzling to them. This is reported by the New York Times, citing testimonials from several victims. Accordingly, the strangers try to get manuscripts of unpublished books with extremely well-crafted e-mails, not only from world-famous best-selling authors, but also from many lesser-known writers. A black market for the texts is difficult to imagine. At the same time, the unknown attackers apparently have a very good knowledge of the publishing industry and the processes that are carried out before a book is published.

Phising with inside information The New York Times explains the attacks on the basis of an attempt by the attackers to obtain a manuscript of a novel by the US writer James Hannaham that was not yet finished . Two days after the book was announced, Hannaham received an email that appeared to be from his editor. In it he was asked to send the manuscript. The phishing attempt was only noticed because he did not answer directly, but rather sent a new mail from a different mail account. Just like other phishing emails, this one was very well done. In some cases, reference is made to information that is not publicly known at all.

What exactly the target of the attacker is, the victims are puzzling, writes the US newspaper. So for the manuscript of authors with few or one publication no financial value can be imagined. At the same time, none of the captured texts has appeared anywhere on the Darknet, as happened earlier with captured series episodes. That would have indicated an attempt at blackmail. It is currently speculated that there could be individuals behind it who earn their money selling rights for films, for example. In this industry, early access to information is worth money. However, this attempted explanation does not sound really convincing.

The New York Times also points out that a considerable amount of effort was apparently made for the attacks. Otherwise, the attackers’ methods have been tried and tested and phishing, as is observed time and again. Although the mysterious phising emails have been around for at least three years, their number increased massively in the fall. The attacks are quite disturbing for the authors. After all, the texts are unfinished works that still require a lot of work before they are to be presented to the public. “I don’t want anyone to know how bad my first drafts are,” says James Hannaham.

(mho)