Cloud-Based Security Breaches

Cloud-Based Security Breaches

The world is becoming a global village with people using the new modes and technological advances to their advantage. Nowadays, people store their details in online accounts instead of walking around with briefcases full of documents and files. In the modern world, companies depend on cloud storage to access the features of customers and the people they trade with. Ove r recent years, there have also been disadvantages of having g information stored in the cloud. The first significant issue is the vulnerability of the data to cybercrime. The data may also be leaked to hackers and people who have access to the account. The information that they acquire may be used in blackmailing,  stealing of cash, and even identity theft, which has been a significant issue in the United States.  This paper is a discussion of four companies that have been involved in data theft and breaches in the cloud-based. The effects of the data breaches will also be analyzed, and the measures that were taken to curb any other cases of data breaching.

Yahoo

Yahoo is one of the largest companies that deals with search engines, email accounts online portal creation. It has been faced by stiff competition by other companies such as Google, and its branches have been integrated to google as a measure to ensure that it remains in the market. The consumers who use the services have to create accounts.  The process of creation requires that one gives their details, such as their full names, email addresses, among others (Trautum & Ormerod, 2016). One of the most significant threats that affected the company was the 2013 threat.  The threat was a password attack, and the login details of account owners were accessed by unauthorized parties. It was the first major breach to happen to the company affecting over three billion accounts. The course of the data breach was a state-sponsored actor who had access to yahoo and was funded by the Chinese government to steal data and leak it to buyers.  The user’s details were accessed and changed by hackers, and the customers had to reenter the details as well as passwords before they could reaccess their accounts. They also had to pass security questions and make sure that the services they had been conducting, such as PayPal transactions, could be proven. The data breach was noted during a data analysis one month before the breach happened.

It was discovered when one of the breachers came forward and offered to give the information. It was later found that the hackers were selling information about 3 billion accounts for $300000. The buyers needed the hackers to identify the details of the people in the United States government as well as military services. Such information was sold on the dark web, and most of the people involved in the hack used private accounts and virtual private networks to make the transaction.  The clients whose accounts were affected were also exposed to more significant details since their recovery emails were also discovered, and some of them also accessed indirectly by the hackers. Locations of work and personal credentials that may have been stored on the Yahoo cloud were leaked too. Some of the profiles that belonged to the government were also remotely accessed, making information about the state known to unauthorized parties.

One may argue that the best way to avoid such a threat was by ensuring that all staff is checked before and after leaving the office. Their accounts should also be checked for abnormal traffic in their fields of operation. Any workers who are caught with issues f data leakage are also supposed to be fired and prosecuted to avoid a similar incident. The company reacted to the breach by running a full analysis of all the accounts that were involved in the violation (Thielman, 2016). They were placed on lockdown, and the owners had to answer strict security questions before they could access their profiles. Apart from that, the users had to set new passwords for the accounts and review their details. The company also set aside measures to evaluate the accounts regularly to sure that such breaches do not occur again. The Yahoo breach was one of the biggest of its kind, and the expanse is hugely based on the number of accounts that were accessed. The repercussions of the hack were that the company lost many clients as well as potential investors due to the hack.

Marriott

Marriot International is a hospitality company that is based in the United States and has many branches all over the world.  It has a wide range of hotel and lodging services based in different areas and tourist destinations.  It is the third-largest hotel chain in the world since it has 7003 properties in locations located all over the world (Mest, 2019). It has 30 brands to its name and 13332826 rooms. The company is very successful and has been showing high levels of growth over the past ten years.  Its headquarters are in Washington Dc and is number33 in the best companies to work for list.

There was no direct cause of the Marriot breach since the company had installed a secure security protocol to protect client data and the company’s details. The company also enured constant evaluation. The breachers must have been working with part of the staff to ensure that clients’ details were leaked. They could also have been part of the deal to sell the client’s profiles to the ackers since only staff members have access to the information. Due to the nature of the enterprise, customers have to fill in personal data such as names, nationality, identity card details, and nationality. In addition to that, they should give details such as credit card numbers, email addresses, and passwords to access the hotel whenever they pay for a service. After setting up a profile, they needed to set a username and password for the account they created on the hotel’s website.  The hackers used the loophole of username and password creation to access the accounts. They used a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) together with a Mimi Katz to access the usernames in the system (Fay & Trenholm, 2019). The tools enabled them to gain administrator privileges of the account and could book rooms, buy drinks and food from the hotel at the expense of a client. The trojan was placed on the company’s website by an unknown person who the investigators claim may have been a worker.

The results of the hack were devastating. People’s credit card numbers were stolen, and their accounts used in procuring services that they did not use. The passport numbers of the hacked accounts were also leaked. It made the individuals vulnerable to identity theft as well as economic downfalls such as stealing funds from bank accounts and making unauthorized payments.  In the case of the company, there have been losses in repairing the security systems. The hotels also had to refund some of the stolen funds and unauthorized payments that had been made by the hackers from the client accounts. The primary beneficiaries were the hackers who gained money for selling data about people to buyers in the black market. The buyers of the data could also use it to make payments. The company lost $74 billion to the hack. Of the total losses, the company has been compensated only 10% by the insurance companies meaning that the damages are still massive on the management.

Equifax

It is a company that deals with the collection of data from various creditors and gives the data to a consumer reporting agency in the United States. The company is also known as one of the three major companies of the kind. It collects data from  800 million consumers worldwide. It also deals with the analysis of credit known as credit monitoring) and fraud prevention. It operates in 24 countries in the USA. It experienced a significant breach of data in 2017 September, as described below.

The security team noted the breach after noticing unusual traffic in a portal. As a security measure, the company took down the affected portal for a day. The threat did not stop after the web application was returned online, and the company security team contacted Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, to assess the danger and find a means to reduce or avoid it.  The experts from Mandiant analyzed the forensic data they were given and identified that the data was unauthorized. It was an IP Spoofing kind of attack. The hackers logged into the system via an unchecked server using pervasive software. The attack was caused by the lack of proper repair of a server security protocol. As a result, a third party was able to log into the system via the compromised portal.  They also noted that the data of 143 million consumers of the company had been affected by the data breach (Berghel, 2017). The company collects data about the people from sources such as credit facilities taking all the details such as names, locations, credit card numbers, driving license numbers, next of kin names, and many more. In a single individual account, it was possible to create a fake profile that was similar to the person’s initial one. Passport numbers were also leaked, and the owners of passports were exposed to identity theft and travel inconveniences. In that case, the people who were affected had to contact travel agencies as well as the national government to confirm their identity. The hack also exposed the people to the loss of money since credit card numbers could be hacked into and transactions made.

The data was sold to buyers in the dark web and used to commit crimes such as accessing social accounts, bank records, among others. The company reacted by creating a website, equifaxsecurity2017.com, purely to deal with the breach and sort out the affected people (Primoff & Kess, 2017). In the profile, the people could file complaints so that they could be dealt with individually without interfering with the normal working of the company. In addition to that, the management was also changed, and more severe security measures taken for the company. The breach cost the organization an estimated $1.4 billion to clean up and compensate.  Most of the funds were directed to the creation of a new security center and better personnel to evaluate the company activity more regularly. Most of the clients also left the company reducing the sales and overall production that the firm had built. The response of the company was to reinspect all the servers that could be used to log in to the main operating system of the company. It also upgraded the security protocol that is followed before one could access the servers. It also fired the managers who were involved in the poor security procedures and appointed new people to the posts. The hack could have been avoided if the company ensured that all the servers hey used were secure. They should have been checked for security issues more regularly and upgraded to new firewalls, which were more efficient.

eBay

It is an American based e-commerce cooperation that enables clients and buyers to interact, make sales and business deals. It is an online auction where a buyer posts an item on sale and gets a buyer from the place. The firm has been investing in technology and many advances in recent years. An excellent illustration of the point is the development of robots that are used in running stores and managing inventory. The smart robots are built from artificial intelligence and are more effective in handling tasks in the workshops of the company. They can also work without getting tired, which makes them an ideal and effective measure for optimum production. eBay experienced a data breach in 2014 and blamed the activity on online fraudsters.  It was a man in the middle type of attack where the interface between the company and the customer was interfered with. The attack was caused by cyber thieves who intended to get monetary value from the organization. The breach caused the members’ accounts to be accessed by unauthorized people. In the eBay accounts, one needs to set a username and password through which they can access the online portal. In the account, one is also asked to link their account details such as PayPal or Payoneer through which one can make payments (Sidhu et al., 2016). The leakage of such information would have been a severe blow to the company and the clients.

The company did not suffer significant losses since the payment details of the people were encrypted in a different server. The repercussions came in fixing the system and loss of potential customers who had planned to make sales and buy goods via the platform.  Each account also had extra security before one could access the security details of the people. The security measures made the breach only influential on the personal details and email addresses (Holmes & Mackenzie, 2014). The locations of clients were also exposed since most of the time, and a person had to fix a spot where the goods could be delivered. The breach forced the company manager Amanda Miller to ask 145million clients to change their passwords and secure their accounts. The attack could have been avoided by creating stronger passwords and access ways to the company’s operating system. It would have noted the intrusion on the first attempts and activated protection procedure.

Conclusion

The world is becoming a global village with people using the new modes and technological advances to their advantage. Over recent years, there have also been disadvantages of having g information stored in the cloud. The first significant issue is the vulnerability of the data to cybercrime. Yahoo is one of the largest companies that deals with search engines, email accounts online portal creation. One of the most significant threats that affected the company was the 2013 threat.  It was later found that the hackers were selling information about 3 billion accounts for $300000. The company reacted to the breach by running a full analysis of all the accounts that were involved in the violation. They were placed on lockdown, and the owners had to answer strict security questions before they could access their profiles. Marriot International is a hospitality company that is based in the United States and has many branches all over the world. There was no direct cause of the Marriot breach since the company had installed a secure security protocol to protect client data and the company’s details. The company also ensured a constant evaluation. The hackers used the loophole of username and password creation to access the accounts. They used a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) together with a Mimi Katz to access the usernames in the system. People’s credit card numbers were stolen, and their accounts used in procuring services that they did not use. The passport numbers of the hacked accounts were also leaked. It made the individuals vulnerable to identity theft as well as economic downfalls such as stealing funds from bank accounts and making unauthorized payments. It is a company that deals with the collection of data from various creditors and gives the data to a consumer reporting agency in the United States. Passport numbers were also leaked, and the owners of passports were exposed to identity theft and travel inconveniences. In that case, the people who were affected had to contact travel agencies as well as the national government to confirm their identity. The hack also exposed the people to the loss of money since credit card numbers could be hacked into and transactions made. eBay is an American based e-commerce cooperation that enables clients and buyers to interact, make sales and business deals. The company did not suffer significant losses since the payment details of the people were encrypted in a different server. Each account also had extra security before one could access the security details of the people.

References

Berghel, H. (2017). Equifax and the latest round of identity theft roulette. Computer, 50(12), 72-76.

Fay, R., & Trenholm, W. (2019). The Cyber Security Battlefield. Governing Cyberspace during a Crisis in Trust, 45.

Holm, E., & Mackenzie, G. (2014). The significance of mandatory data breach warnings to identity crime. significance, 1, 1-2014.

Mest, E. (2019). Marriott ends 2018 ahead despite data breach, strikes.

Primoff, W., & Kess, S. (2017). The Equifax Data Breach: What CPAs and Firms Need to Know Now. The CPA Journal, 87(12), 14-17.

Sidhu, J., Sakhuja, R., & Zhou, D. (2016). Attacks on eBay.

Thielman, S. (2016). Yahoo hack: 1bn accounts compromised by biggest data breach in history. The Guardian, 15, 2016.

Trautman, L. J., & Ormerod, P. C. (2016). Corporate Directors’ and Officers’ Cybersecurity Standard of Care: The Yahoo Data Breach. Am. UL Rev., 66, 1231.