Threat Alerts

 Last week, ransomware will cost companies critical revenue, repeat offenders put customer loyalty at risk, and businesses fail to account for the risks of compromised employee credentials.

United States – Alphabroder

Exploit: Ransomware attack
Alphabroder: Promotional product supplier

Risk to Small Business: 1.555 = Severe: A ransomware attack temporarily halted Alphabroder’s processing and shipping platform. Since the ransomware prevented the company from executing orders, Alphabroder was forced to make a statement on social media and interrupt most business processes. Alphabroder did subscribe to cybersecurity insurance to help offset the costs, but the reputational damage and long-term infrastructure costs can be difficult to quantify and are capable of significantly dampening the company’s financial prospects in the near term.

Individual Risk: No personal information was compromised in the breach.

Customers Impacted: Unknown

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to profit from businesses’ IT vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, these bad actors only have to execute their strategy once to inflict incredible long-term damage to a company. This complicated threat landscape makes it especially important that businesses regularly assess their cybersecurity stance to ensure that they are ready to defend whatever comes their way.

United States – Stripe

Exploit: Phishing attack
Stripe: Online payment processing company

Risk to Small Business: 1.888 = Severe: Hackers are deploying fake and invalid Stripe support alerts to engage customers and procure user credentials. After clicking on the fictitious support alert, users are prompted to enter their bank account information and user credentials on a fake customer login page. This isn’t the first time that Stripe customers have been targeted in phishing attacks, and such attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and prevalent.

Individual Risk: 2.428 = Severe: Given that Stripe is an online financial platform, users can easily be tricked into providing their most sensitive personal data to cybercriminals. It’s unclear if any Stripe customers have fallen for this phishing scam, but any users who responded to one of these malicious messages had their personal data compromised. They should immediately report this to Stripe and their other financial institutions, and they should take steps to ensure their data’s long-term integrity.

Customers Impacted: Unknown

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Cybersecurity has taken center stage among customers and employees, and both are demonstrating an unwillingness to work with companies that can’t protect their information. Especially for companies operating in a crowded and competitive market, top-shelf cybersecurity standards are a prerequisite to a thriving business model

United States – Pitney Bowes Inc. 

Exploit: Malware attack
Pitney Bowes Inc.: Mail management company

Risk to Small Business: 2.111 = Severe: A malware attack prevented Pitney Bowes’ employees and customers from accessing critical services. The company, which specializes in mail management, lost business directly as a result of the attack. Customers were unable to refill postage or upload transactions on their mailing machines. In addition, news of the announcement sent the company’s shares down 4%, which underscores the many ways that a cybersecurity incident can negatively impact a company’s bottom line.

Individual Risk: No personal information was compromised in the breach.

Customers Impacted: Unknown

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Regardless of the attack methodology, cybersecurity events are incredibly costly for companies. In this case, Pitney Bowes was punished by investors, lost revenue opportunities, and endured reputational damage that will have long-term implications for the company. Given the high cost of recovery, pursuing robust cybersecurity services is a bargain.

United Kingdom – Sonic Jobs

Exploit: Exposed database
Sonic Jobs: Job recruitment website

Risk to Small Business: 2.111= Severe: An exposed database revealed the personal information of thousands of job seekers. Sonic Jobs, which partnered with Amazon Web Services for its database, failed to change the database configuration to private, meaning that all users could view the details of job applicants and anyone who knew the locations of the servers could have downloaded the information.

Individual Risk: 2= Severe: The exposed data was provided by job seekers, and it includes their names, addresses, contact information, and work experience. This information can quickly be sold on the Dark Web, where it can be used to facilitate other cybercrimes including phishing and identity scams. To protect themselves, anyone impacted by the breach should enroll in identity monitoring services while also being especially critical of unusual or unexpected communications.

Customers Impacted: 29,202

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: In its response, Sonic Jobs cited its limited resources as one reason that the database’s configuration went undetected. Unfortunately for the company, consumers and global regulators don’t look at this metric when deciding how to respond to a data breach. Given the enormous financial and reputational costs of a data breach, acquiring the services to assess and secure your cybersecurity landscape is a no brainer.

Risk Levels:
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
*The risk score is calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.

In Other News:

Canadian Companies Victimized by Uptick in Ransomware 

2019 has seen a precipitous increase in the number of ransomware attacks reaching SMBs, government agencies, and educational institutions. These attacks, which consist of encrypting a company’s files and then demanding a ransom payment, are becoming especially common among institutions that lack the resources to continually defend against the devastating attack vector. 

Now, that reality is hitting Canadian businesses especially hard, a noteworthy development for a country that has often managed to avoid being victimized by such threats.

According to a recent survey, 88% of Canadian organizations experienced some type of data breach in the past year, and 82% noted an increased attack volume during that period. However, in that survey, ransomware only accounted for 14% of these breaches. Since then, a string of Canadian healthcare companies, small businesses, and government organizations have been targeted. Some are speculating that the malware’s success in other countries, including the U.S., has encouraged cyber criminals to broaden their horizons.

Regardless of the intention, with ransomware widely available for lease on the Dark Web, businesses shouldn’t expect these attacks to abate any time soon. Rather, they should continually review and update their cybersecurity posture to ensure that their infrastructure is capable of defending against the latest ransomware strains.

 Last week, phishing attacks expose protected health information, hackers hijack a shoe company’s email list, patients are upset about healthcare data breaches, and Twitter comes under fire for data misuse.

United States – UAB Medicine

Exploit: Phishing attack
UAB Medicine: Academic medical center based in Birmingham, Alabama

Risk to Small Business: 1.666 = Severe: A phishing attack tricked several employees into providing their email credentials to hackers, which subsequently exposed the protected health information for thousands of patients. The email purported to originate from a hospital executive, asking employees to participate in a fake business survey. Executives believe that hackers were trying to access the healthcare provider’s payroll system, but they were prevented from reaching this information. Regardless, the August 7th breach will have a significant impact on the patients whose data was compromised and on UAB Medicine, as they will bear the cost of credit monitoring and identity theft protection services as well as the increased regulatory scrutiny because of the nature of the information involved.

Individual Risk: 2.571 = Moderate: Hackers had access to patients’ protected health information, including names, medical record numbers, dates of birth, dates of service, location of service, and other medical-related information. Some patients also had their Social Security numbers compromised. UAB Medicine is encouraging anyone impacted by the breach to closely monitor their accounts and benefit statements for fraudulent activity. In addition, they should enroll in the year of free credit and identity monitoring services provided by UAB Medicine.

Customers Impacted: 19,557

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Despite your best efforts, phishing attacks will likely make their way into your employees’ inboxes at some point. Fortunately, comprehensive awareness training can empower employees to sidestep ongoing efforts at gaining access to your network and compromising your data. Given the growing costs associated with a data breach, the ROI on cybersecurity best practices is remarkably clear and should be required for every employee with an email account.

United States – TOMS

Exploit: Unauthorized database access
TOMS: Designer and producer of shoes, eyewear, coffee, apparel, and handbags

Risk to Small Business: 2.333 = Severe: In an unusual cybersecurity incident, a hacker hijacked the mailing list for TOMS and sent a message encouraging customers to log off their devices and enjoy the outdoors. The message was not malicious in nature, but the hacker admitted that he accessed the platform for a significant time period before sending the email. The hacker also ridiculed bad actors, describing their actions in obscene language sent to TOMS customers. Fortunately, the hacker didn’t disrupt any other elements of TOMS’ IT infrastructure, but his actions highlight the company’s weak cybersecurity standards, which could negatively impact the company on many fronts.

Individual Risk: No personal information was compromised in the breach.

Customers Impacted: Unknown

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: When it comes to protecting customer data, speed and precision are your best friends. Unfortunately, too many companies don’t have the IT capabilities to identify a data breach or to adequately investigate an event after it happens. As a result, customer data can virtually linger indefinitely before protective action can be taken, such as changing passwords or otherwise ensuring data integrity. This incident serves as an important reminder that every business needs to enlist in services that help proactively monitor and protect customer data.

United States – Methodist Hospitals

Exploit: Phishing attack
Methodist Hospitals: Community-based healthcare system located in Gary, Indiana

Risk to Small Business: 1.222 = Extreme: A successful phishing attack against two employees compromised the private health data for thousands of patients. The incident occurred in June, but the healthcare provider didn’t finish investigating the breach until August. It’s unclear why the company waited two months before making the breach public. Regardless, Methodist Hospitals will face intense regulatory scrutiny due to the nature of the information involved.

Individual Risk: 2.142 = Severe: The compromised data was accessed on June 12th or between July 1st and July 8th. It included patient names, addresses, health insurance information, Social Security numbers, government ID information, passport numbers, financial account numbers, payment card information, electronic signatures, usernames, and passwords. This incredibly expansive data set has a great value on the Dark Web, as it can be used to perpetuate additional cybercrimes. Therefore, those impacted by the breach should take every precaution to protect their data, including contacting their financial institutions and enrolling in credit and identity monitoring services.

Customers Impacted: 68,039

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Today’s digital landscape is replete with threats, but companies are not defenseless. Phishing scams require employees to actively compromise their credentials, and comprehensive awareness training can equip team members to identify and report fraudulent communications, effectively rendering them useless and creating a safe environment for your customers’ data.

Canada – TransUnion 

Exploit: Unauthorized database access
TransUnion: Consumer credit reporting agency

Risk to Small Business: 2.111 = Severe: Using compromised user credentials, hackers accessed the personal information of Canadian TransUnion customers. The breach, which occurred between June 2019 and July 2019 and detected in August, shines a spotlight on the company’s delayed breach response and notification process. Although the company’s IT infrastructure wasn’t at fault, their inability to account for a holistic vulnerability that allowed hackers using stolen credentials to access their customers’ information, will bring negative media scrutiny and public attention to the company.

Individual Risk: 2.857 = Moderate: TransUnion did not release a specific overview of the compromised data; however, the sensitive nature of their business means that personally identifiable information was likely included in the event. Notably, the company acknowledged that credit report data was exposed in the breach. This can include individuals’ names, dates of birth, current and former addresses, information on existing card and loan obligations, social insurance numbers, and other sensitive data.

Customers Impacted: 37,000

How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: The deluge of data breaches in the past several years have made login credentials widely available to bad actors. Therefore, today’s companies should be proactive about identifying compromised credentials and taking intentional steps to limit accessibility using this information.

Risk Levels:
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
*The risk score is calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.

In Other News:

Twitter Uses Two-Factor Data for Targeted Advertising 

Implementing cybersecurity best practices is critical for today’s companies, especially in regard to securing infrastructure throughout an increasingly complicated threat environment. Unfortunately, in many cases, organizations rely on their customers to adopt these priorities in order to effectively protect their data. 

These protocols include initiatives such as using strong, unique passwords to secure accounts and implementing two-factor authentication to further secure this information. Of course, companies undermine user adoption when they use that information to serve up targeted advertising.

This week, Twitter acknowledged that it used the phone number and email address data from its two-factor authentication protocol to developing targeted advertisements. The information was used by the company’s tailored audiences program that allows companies to create targeted advertisements by matching their own marketing lists with Twitter user data. The company resolved the issue on September 17th, but it’s unclear how long companies benefit from this security-centered information.

More importantly, this misuse of personal data might discourage users from adopting these security protocols in the future, a decision that would put both parties at risk for a data breach.

DATA BREACH, CYBER ALERT MONDAY: 

Last week, data breaches threatened future government contracts, PII was exposed online, and cybersecurity incidents were projected to reach an all-time high.

United States – Carle Foundation Hospital 

Exploit: Phishing attack

Carle Foundation Hospital: Regional, not-for-profit healthcare provider

Risk to Small Business: 2.111 = Severe: Three company employees fell victim to a phishing scam that gave hackers access to their email accounts containing patient data. Although the hospital immediately secured the accounts, the easily preventable incident will expose Carle Foundation Hospital to intense regulatory scrutiny and cascading costs related to the breach.

Individual Risk: 2.428 = Severe: The compromised email accounts belonged to three physicians, and they included data from patients that received cardiology or surgery services at Carle. The data includes patient names, medical record numbers, dates of birth, and clinical information. Fortunately, patients’ Social Security numbers and financial data were not included in the breach. However, personal data is a widely accepted currency on the Dark Web, since personally identifiable information(PII) can be used to facilitate additional cybercrimes. Therefore, those impacted by the breach need to closely monitor their accounts for usual activity while being mindful of other malicious uses of that information.

Customers Impacted: Unkown

How it Could Affect Your Business: Data breaches bring a host of complications to any company, including reputational damage and ancillary recovery costs. Altogether, it can cause significant financial distress to any organization. Neutralizing defensible threats, like phishing scams, is a simple and affordable solution that can play a prominent role in protecting your company’s reputation and bottom line.

United States – Miracle Systems

Exploit: Malware attack

Risk to Small Business: 1.555 = Severe: Using stolen credentials, hackers gained access to several databases that store company data related to the US military. The breach, which occurred on three separate occasions between November 2018 and July 2019, was enabled by a malware attack that was distributed via a malicious email attachment. Although the stolen data was years old, the company was closely scrutinized by the Secret Service, and company leaders estimate that they’ve lost as much as $1 million because of the breach. Of course, this doesn’t include the opportunity costs associated with a loss in trust and business with the government.

Individual Risk: 2.428 = Severe: Several email account credentials were stolen during the breach, and their accessibility was broadly advertised on the Dark Web. Although the company believes that this information is outdated, all employees should reset their password and follow best practices for creating unique credentials.

Customers Impacted:Unknown

How it Could Affect Your Business: For many companies, protecting their data should be an extension of protecting their bottom line. The Miracle Systems breach is a reminder of the steep price that many companies pay in lost revenue and reputational damage that can have far-reaching consequences for their financial viability and future business model.

United States – Restaurant Depot

Exploit: Spear phishing attack

Restaurant Depot: Commercial food service wholesaler

Risk to Small Business: 1.666 = Severe: Restaurant Depot’s customers are receiving phishing emails requesting payment for invoices, purportedly from the company. In response, customers began lashing out on social media, and the company was forced to issue a statement on its website discrediting the email content. The emails are personalized so cybercriminals likely purchased company data from a Dark Web marketplace, which could suggest the possibility of an even more expansive data breach at Restaurant Depot.

Individual Risk: 2.142 = Severe: Any recipient who paid a fraudulent invoice has compromised their personally identifiable information and their payment data. However, even for those that delete the message, it’s likely that their information was obtained through a different data breach, and they should closely examine their credentials for other potential misuses. In some cases, credit or identity monitoring services might be required to ensure their data’s long-term integrity.

Customers Impacted: Unkown

How it Could Affect Your Business: Having your company co-opted as a tool for cybercriminals is bad for business, and companies that are victimized in this way face an expensive, up-hill battle to restore their customer’s confidence. Preemptively knowing if your employee or customer data is compromised can help prevent this scenario by giving your business an opportunity to respond before hackers wreak havoc on your system.

In Other News: