Data-Guard365 … A Partner Mom Would Endorse

For many parts of the U.S. this weekend, storms-a-brewing will rain on your Mother’s Day parade.  This year, I’ve been tuning into another type of reign that must bring tears to the eyes of their mothers, namely, cybercriminals’ tactics that storm companies economically and disrupt management focus on surviving a pandemic and reviving their business.

Here’s a quick summary of four of the biggest breaches of all time:

Yahoo: Date: 2013-14 Impact: 3 billion user accounts

Details: Yahoo announced in September 2016 that in 2014 it had been the victim of what would be the biggest data breach in history. The attackers, which the company believed we “state-sponsored actors,” compromised the real names, email addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers of 500 million users. Yahoo claimed that most of the compromised passwords were hashed.

Then in December 2016, Yahoo disclosed another breach from 2013 by a different attacker that compromised the names, dates of birth, email addresses and passwords, and security questions and answers of 1 billion user accounts. Yahoo revised that estimate in October 2017 to include all of its 3 billion user accounts.

The timing of the original breach announcement was bad, as Yahoo was in the process of being acquired by Verizon, which eventually paid $4.48 billion for Yahoo’s core internet business. The breaches knocked an estimated $350 million off the value of the company.

Equifax: Date: July 29, 2017 Impact: 147.9 million consumers

Details: Equifax, one of the largest credit bureaus in the US, said on Sept. 7, 2017 that an application vulnerability in one of their websites led to a data breach that exposed about 147.9 million consumers. The breach was discovered on July 29, but the company says that it likely started in mid-May. The breach compromised the personal information (including Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and in some cases drivers’ license numbers) of 143 million consumers; 209,000 consumers also had their credit card data exposed. That number was raised to 147.9 million in October 2017.

Equifax was faulted for a number of security and response lapses. Chief among them was that the application vulnerability that allowed the attackers access was unpatched. Inadequate system segmentation made lateral movement easy for the attackers. Equifax was also slow to report the breach.

Marriott International: Date: 2014-18 Impact: 500 million customers

Details: Marriott International announced in November 2018 that attackers had stolen data on approximately 500 million customers. The breach initially occurred on systems supporting Starwood hotel brands starting in 2014. The attackers remained in the system after Marriott acquired Starwood in 2016 and were not discovered until September 2018.

The attackers were able to take some combination of contact information, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest numbers, travel information, and other personal information. The credit card numbers and expiration dates of more than 100 million customers were believed to be stolen, but Marriott is uncertain whether the attackers were able to decrypt the credit card numbers. The breach was eventually attributed to a Chinese intelligence group seeking to gather data on US citizens, according to a New York Times article.

Solar Winds: Date: 2020-2021 Impact: TBD

Details: The biggest cyber intrusion known to date was discovered in December 2020, with cybercriminals succeeding in a highly sophisticated operation of inserting “back doors” into the networks of dozens of companies, government agencies, and think tanks across the globe, only being discovered a year after the intrusion began. FireEye was the private company who uncovered the breach and reported it to the U.S. Government. The global reach of the incident, and the nature and number of affected government agencies – most notably the U.S. Energy Department which controls the National Nuclear Security Administration – is unprecedented (quoting Major Juliet Skingsley, Army Chief of General Staff Research Fellow, Intl. Security Program).

According to FireEye, Russian hackers weaponized SolarWinds business software updates in order to distribute malware called Sunburst. From there, they attacked multiple government, consulting, technology, telecom, and oil and gas companies in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

You know that holiday weekends lend themselves to big breaches, right?  Without a conscience and wanting to catch an IT Team unawares, what better weekend for a cyber-criminal to hit your business than when keepers of the shop are out celebrating Mom?!

Relative to the hackers, I’m certain this is not what Mom intended her boys and girls to do for a living. If she’s oblivious, that’s probably best.  Even if she’s in the know and they’re sharing their profits with her, Mom has got to be grimacing that her kids’ bright minds are being used with criminal intent to make their fortune.

It’s a messy state of affairs and getting worse by the day. Remove yourself from the muck and engage a cybersecurity partner who will keep your back, your data, and your networks clean and secure. Focus on your legacy and let Data-Guard365 handle the bad actors so their dirty work doesn’t become yours, and your business operations run uninterrupted, this and every holiday weekend!

==> Get a FREE Cyber Health Check

Data-Guard 365 is a MSSP firm headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in Chicago, Atlanta, and other strategic locations across the globe. The company is a one-of-a-kind business partner whose people, processes, and technology provide armored cybersecurity for a price point that pays for itself. www.Data-Guard365.com / (317) 967-6767 / info@data-guard365.com