Spears Technology, Inc is a software development company located in Los Angeles, California. They reported a breach in security, stating that its “security defenses has been breached and exploited for 2 weeks by hackers.” The hackers had accessed and downloaded 90,000 addresses containing customer credit cards and passwords. Spears Technology found this attack to be so severe that they reported the attack to the FBI for a full investigation. Spears Technology was looking to law enforcement officials to protect their intellectual property.
How did this attack occur? The intruder entered through an employee’s home machine, which was connected to Spears Technology’s corporate VPN network. The application called BEAST Trojan was used in the attack to open a “back door” allowing the hackers undetected access. The security breach was discovered when customers complained about the usage of their credit cards without their knowledge.
The hackers were traced back to Beijing, China through e-mail address evidence. The credit card information was sent to that same e-mail address. The passwords allowed the hackers to access Spears Technology’s network from a remote location, posing as employees. The intent of the attack was to steal the source code for their VOIP system and “hold it hostage” from Spears Technology, in exchange for ransom.
The hackers had intended on selling the stolen VOIP software source code to competitors.
How would you prevent such attacks from occurring in the future at Spears Technology?