|
XYZ Company had a strong Internet business built. They weren't the biggest
player in the field but they were doing well enough that they believed they
could retire in the next 3 years. It was a good time to start a family business.
The Internet, a local service provider and off-the-shelf technology solutions
let them look and act like a big company.
Their first hint came at 8:43 a.m. An email arrived with a complete listing of the last 100 orders that had been received and a threat that if his demands were not met, that an email would be sent to all of his 24,000 exposing their personal information and boasting that he had their credit card numbers. The problem was simple and could have been avoided with 20 minutes of effort. Their ISP had not kept their servers up to date with the current security patches. A hacker gained access to the server and downloaded the customer database. We verified that their data and applications had not been altered and moved them to one of our up to date servers. The hacker lost all access to the server. The hacker has made additional attempts but can no longer get in through the old hole. The hacker checks back everyday to see if they've moved to a less secure server. The hacker also sent out his email to the 100 customers that he actually had data on. Analysis of the hacker: This hacker got in through a known and well-publicized security hole. Allowing just five minutes to install the patch and a generous 15 minutes to reboot the server would have saved this company's reputation. The hacker spent a total of 20 minutes hacking in on the first attempt. After 20 minutes he had complete control of the machine and full access to the companies online data. The hacker knows he got in once before, he has tried and will likely to continue enter this company's server again. Is your provider up to date? Many companies are not. The Code Red worm only worked on machines that hadn't been properly patched. That patch had been available for over a month before the worm hit. How secure is your website? Call us and find out what it takes to keep servers up to date. |