Category: Blog

TicketFly Customer Information May Have Been Hacked

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-7987 alignleft” src=”https://www.securepc-wi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ticketfly-hacked-resized.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”225″ />Another week, another high-profile data breach, but this one can be filed under “Missed Opportunity.”  The site in question is “TicketFly,” which is a web-based event ticket sales website owned by a company called Eventbrite. The TicketFly website was down since May 31st, and the normal homepage had been replaced by an image of Guy Fawkes with the message “Your Security Down I’m Not Sorry.”

The page formerly contained links that pointed to compromised customer information, but those have subsequently been removed by the company, which is still scrambling to recover.

Unfortunately, TicketFly was given every opportunity to avoid the incident altogether.  The hacker responsible for taking the site down goes by the handle “IsHakdz,” and claims that he contacted TicketFly, warning them of serious security flaws that would allow a hacker to take control of the site and all of the company’s databases.  He asked for 1 Bitcoin to reveal the technical details.  When the company failed to respond, he decided to show them he was serious, and did exactly as he claimed he could do.

While you might question the hacker’s actions, his motives seemed pure enough, and the reality is that many companies have “Bug Bounty” programs where they pay researchers who find critical security flaws.  The bounty payouts are typically less than a bitcoin, but the idea is the same.  Unfortunately, TicketFly didn’t have such a program and even after having been warned of the flaws in their system, they took no meaningful action until the hacker forced them to do so.

While it’s not impossible to envision a scenario in which this hacker would resell the data he was able to get his hands on, the actions of this particular individual seem to point in the opposite direction.  Even so, if you’ve made a purchase on the TicketFly database, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and carefully monitor the payment card you used to make the purchase. It goes without saying that you should change your TicketFly password immediately.

Massive Malware Attack Stemmed From Bittorent App

According to a Microsoft security researcher, a massive malware attack attempted to install a cryptocurrency mining software on more than 400,000 computers in less than twelve hours.  The failed campaign is noteworthy because of the attack vector used.  It was a supply chain attack implemented by compromising Bittorrent, a highly popular program used to share and download files.

Until recently, security professionals discounted the very possibility of supply chain attacks, regarding them as highly improbable occurrences.  The sad truth, however, is that they’re becoming increasingly common.  Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a growing number of them, including CCleaner, which is a popular disk-maintenance program.  A poisoned version of it was delivered to more than two million of the software’s users.

In another supply chain attack, M.E. Doc (a tax and accounting application which is widely used in the Ukraine) was tainted and contained the NotPetya wiper worm, and shut down computers all over the world just last year.

Then there was a collection of Android apps that came preinstalled on phones from not one, but two different manufacturers that allowed hackers unfettered access to the data on those phones.  In fact, this is actually the second time Bittorrent has been hijajcked.  Last year, a tainted version of the client installed ransomware on Macintosh computers around the world.

Fortunately, this latest attack was not successful, although Microsoft researcher reported that Windows Defender blocked more than 400,000 attempts to infect computers between March 1st and March 6th, with the actual Bittorrent infection occurring sometime between February 12 and February 19.  In this instance, the threat was regional, with most of the computers being located in Russia, Turkey, and the Ukraine.

While this was the latest supply chain attack, it certainly won’t be the last. Worst of all, these kinds of attacks are notoriously hard to prevent because updates coming from trusted sources are often installed without question.

Major Server Ring Distributing Malware Taken Down

Score one for the good guys.  A researcher from BrilliantIT was recently able to figure out how infected computers would connect to EITest’s command and control server, and using that information, was able to bring down their entire network.

If you haven’t heard of EITest before, the true significance of that statement might not be registering.

EITest first appeared in 2011.  In its original incarnation, it was little more than an annoyance.  It was a collection of compromised servers used to direct web traffic to poisoned websites, where the owners could infect unsuspecting users with their homegrown malware.

In 2013, EITest’s owners got savvy, relentlessly grew their network to more than 52,000 compromised machines and started renting their network out to hackers around the world to drive traffic to their poisoned websites. This unleashed a torrent of wildly destructive malware.  Ever since, it’s been a thorn in the side of IT professionals everywhere.

Using the crack discovered by BrilliantIT, researchers were able to redirect all traffic to a sinkhole, effectively shutting the network down altogether.

Since then, it appears that the hackers have made one halfhearted attempt to regain control of their network, and then apparently gave up on the idea.

While this is undeniably good news, EITest isn’t the only traffic distribution network on the Dark Web, and even if the hackers have given up on the idea of recovering access to their old network, there’s nothing stopping them from building a whole new one.  That’s not to undercut the significance of the victory here, but rather, merely to point out that it’s a temporary win and reprieve, at best.  They’ll be back.  They always come back.

Good news is rare on the security front, and when it is found, we should all take a moment to celebrate.  Kudos to the team at BrilliantIT!

Intel Taking Additional Steps To Prevent Security Flaws

By now, you’ve almost certainly heard of “Spectre,” one of two recently discovered security flaws that impact every chip made by Intel in the last ten years.

The story of Spectre, and Intel’s response to it has been an interesting one.  In response to the flaw’s discovery, Intel rushed a firmware patch, but quickly had to take it back and recommend that users not install  it, because it created as many problems as it solved.

Intel has since released a better, more stable patch, but hasn’t stopped there.  The company recently revealed that it is introducing various hardware protections against Spectre-like vulnerabilities that may be detected in the future.

According to Intel’s CEO, Brian Krzanich, “(We have) redesigned parts of the processor to introduce new levels of protection through partitioning.  As we bring these new products to market, ensuring that they deliver the performance improvements people expect from us is critical.  Our goal is to offer not only the best performance, but also the best secure performance.”

While that is welcome news for people planning to make purchases in the near future, owners of existing Intel-powered equipment will still have to have to rely on firmware updates for Spectre protection. This unfortunately comes with the tradeoff of a hit to CPU performance.

In tandem with that update, the company also announced that as of now, they have firmware updates available for all of its products launched within the last five years.  This coupled with their recent partnership with Microsoft to help deliver Spectre updates to their legions of impacted customers should provide peace of mind, even with the expected hits to system performance.

Unfortunately, with new variants of Spectre and Meltdown being discovered on a regular basis, this is likely not the last we’ll hear about this issue.

Researchers Find Major Vulnerabilities In Banking Apps

Do you do your banking online?  If so, there’s bad news in the form of a report recently released by the security firm “Positive Technologies.”

The company tested a variety of websites using a proprietary tool they developed in-house, which scans websites for security flaws.  While flaws were found across a wide range of industries, literally every banking site Positive Technologies tested was found to have serious security flaws.

The particulars varied from one bank to the next, but the security flaws included:

  • XML external entity errors
  • Arbitrary file reading and modification flaws
  • Expired or nonexistent SSL certificates
  • Poor or nonexistent encryption

Some banking websites were so flawed that a hacker could execute a ‘man in the middle’ attack and execute malicious code to infect the user’s machine. They could potentially make off with all their money and with more than enough information to steal their identity.

Some 80 percent of sites tested were found to be vulnerable to XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks.

Regardless of the specific vulnerability, the big, terrifying takeaway from the Positive Technologies report is simply this:  Of the financial sites they tested, 100 percent of them were found to have vulnerabilities.

These are the people who are tasked with safeguarding your money, and they’re obviously not doing enough to keep their websites secure.

Firewalls and basic detection protocols are simply not enough.  The hackers of the world have matured and gotten better at what they do, and security professionals simply haven’t been improving as quickly.  This is the reason we’re seeing such a massive spike in high profile data breaches.  The reason is that each year is a new, record-breaking year, beating out the one before, often by a wide margin.

Until that changes, everyone is at risk.  Given how important the internet has become to international commerce and modern life, that’s simply unacceptable.

Attackers Targeting Job Seekers Via Listings And Recruitment

Cyber-criminals around the world are increasingly focusing their attention on job seekers.  According to the security firm Flashpoint, there has been a notable uptick in ploys involving phony job listings that attempt to get job seekers to give up personal information.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the fact that this is only now becoming a growing threat.  After all, from the cyber-criminal’s point of view, it’s low hanging fruit.  Job seekers expect that they’ll be asked for all types of personal information when applying for positions, after all.

As long as the criminals take the time to make their offers appear legitimate, most applicants wouldn’t think twice about sending in their resume (complete with physical address and phone number), and then, a bit later in the process, their social security number and other personal and confidential information.

According to Flashpoint analyst David Shear, it’s not just personal information the criminals are after, however.  Increasingly, criminals are seeking to engage the services of the people who “apply,” by using them as unwitting money mules, or using them as part of an intricate money laundering scheme.

On top of that, it’s all too easy for the criminal to respond to an applicant’s inquiry with an email containing an attachment (usually a poisoned PDF).  Again, since the applicant thinks he (or she) has replied to a legitimate offer for employment, odds are excellent that they’ll open the attachment without hesitation.

At that point, whatever payload the poisoned file contained is installed onto their computer, which can have devastating consequences, depending on the nature of the malware the criminals want to install.

Shear also notes that he and his team have seen an increase in the number of inquiries on the Dark Web asking after compromised business accounts, and offers this explanation as to why: “Attackers want access to business accounts in order to leverage their phony job listings and recruit people who would ultimately participate in fraud without their knowledge.”

All that to say, job seekers beware.  It seems that no low is too low where these criminals are concerned.

Apple Recall Affects Some Macbook Pro Batteries

If you recently bought a 13-inch MacBook Pro (without a Touch Bar), you’ll want to head to Apple’s website.  The company didn’t make a big announcement, but they’ve quietly introduced a battery replacement program that impacted what the company described as a “limited number” of laptops.

The company didn’t provide many details, but apparently, on certain machines an unknown component failure can cause the built-in battery to swell.  There’s no danger of an explosion and no fire hazard associated with the failure, but the company is playing it safe and offering to replace the batteries on any affected laptop, free of charge.

According to details on Apple’s website, the laptops in question were manufactured between October 2016 and October 2017.  If you visit the webpage, you can enter your machine’s serial number to see if your machine is affected, and thus eligible for the free replacement.

At this time, it’s unclear precisely how many machines this issue has impacted. But clearly, Apple wants to put this issue to rest as quickly as possible.

Battery swelling is a strange symptom, but surprisingly, this is not the first time Apple products have suffered from similar issues.  Not long ago, Apple’s 42mm Smart Watches suffered a similar problem, prompting the company to issue a similar recall.  The company also recently extended their warranty on first-gen Apple Watch models by two years, offering free battery replacements for up to three years after the date of purchase.

These recent moves have caused iPhone owners to cry foul.  On the heels of the Apple “Throttling” drama last year, the company offered a discounted battery replacement program to help bring older iPhones with failing batteries back to full speed.  While Apple’s $29 discounted battery price is a significant savings over the regular price of $79, some users argue that the batteries should have been free for these products as well.

Google Changing Name Of Android Wear Without Updates

Wearable computing devices from smart watches to glasses are struggling to find an audience, and Google’s Android Wear operating system hasn’t gotten much love in recent years.  It has weakened as major players in the tech space have struggled to find a market for these products. On the face of it, these products would seem to be wildly popular, but still haven’t quite captured the imaginations of a critical mass of the consuming public.

Google’s recent announcement that it was rebranding Android Wear to “Wear OS,” is the most significant move we’ve seen in over a year. However, without significant updates, simply changing the name isn’t going to improve the OS’s visibility or viability.

The name change was driven by the fact that when the OS was first released, it appeared only on smart watches, but the company later added iPhone compatibility, which made the name less than perfectly applicable.  In a blog post related to the rebranding effort, Google referred to Wear OS as “a wearables operating system for everyone.”

It’s hard to make a convincing argument that Google is all that interested in wearables.  One needs only to compare the company’s handling of Wear OS with the way Apple handles wearable products and OS’s.

We had to wait two and a half years between the version 1.0 and version 2.0 of Wear OS.  Android Wear was released more than 13 years ago, and since its release, the company hasn’t made any updates or announcements except for the recent blog post announcing its rebranding.

There are some signs that Google has long term plans for the floundering operating system, though.  The company has been recruiting high-profile brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Hugo Boss, Guess, Gc, Fossil and others to make and sell Android watches.  It will be interesting to see what the company does in coming months.

Microsoft Ending Forum Support For Older Operating Systems

Big changes are coming from Microsoft starting in July (exact date unknown), and it has potentially dire implications if you’re using some of the company’s older technology.

Microsoft announced that in July, they’ll no longer provide forum-based support for a wide range of products and software, including:

  • Microsoft Band
  • Zune
  • Surface Pro
  • Surface Pro 2
  • Surface RT
  • Surface 2
  • Microsoft Security Essentials
  • Internet Explorer 10
  • Office 2010
  • Office 2013
  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 8.1 RT

Although the company didn’t cite a specific reason for the change, it seems obvious that this is another move to push people into buying the latest and greatest of the company’s offerings.  Unfortunately for them, the announcement has been met with more than a little hostility, and for good reason.

Consider that the company has pledged to continue to support Windows 7 until 2020, and Windows 8.1 (and variants) until 2023.  Given that we’re still quite some distance from those EOL dates, closing an important avenue of support for a product the company is still ostensibly supporting seems a bit premature.  Nonetheless, there’s no indication at this time that the company has plans to extend the forum support for any of these products beyond July.

In some instances, this won’t prove to be problematic.  Few people still use Internet Explorer 10 as anything more than a curiosity, and Zune was never especially popular, so the loss of those forums isn’t likely to cause much backlash. However,  in the case of Windows 7 and 8.1, not only has the company pledged support for years to come, but those products are still actively used by a significant minority around the world, and those users aren’t thrilled with the recent announcement.

In any case, given that the company is unlikely to change course, this is all the more reason to make upgrading a priority if you’re still using any of the products mentioned above.

Bank Employee Steals Info On Over A Million Customers

Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank is the 12th largest bank in the US. They have a major problem, and so do roughly a million and a half of its customers.  According to CEO William Rogers, an unidentified employee of the firm printed a vast amount of private customer information, including their names, addresses, phone numbers and account balance information.

Rogers stressed that social security numbers, account numbers, driver’s license numbers, user IDs, and passwords were not exposed.  In a recent press release, he had the following to say:

“In conjunction with law enforcement, we discovered that a former employee while employed at SunTrust may have attempted to print information on approximately 1.5 million clients and share this information with a criminal third party.

We and third parties have done forensic analysis on these accounts and we have not identified significant fraudulent activity regarding the effect of the accounts.”

Even so, this is a blow to the company’s image, and the lost trust won’t be easily regained.  It also underscores how vulnerable companies are to internal threats.

In response to the attack, SunTrust is offering ongoing IDnotify identity protection (offered through Experian) to all its current and new clients at no cost.

The company’s handling of the issue so far has been about as good as can be expected.  The unfortunate reality is that there aren’t many good ways of stopping a rogue employee from making off with sensitive customer data or proprietary company information.  Better auditing protocols and controls can help, but only to a certain extent.  While those kinds of policies make it easier to detect when an internal theft has occurred, they do nothing to actually prevent them.

This puts management in a tricky spot.  Employees have to be trusted with sensitive data in order to do their work, which also increases risk.  There aren’t many good solutions here beyond better vetting of employees, but of course, that is by no means a magic bullet either.