A slow, but troubling week to say the least! Phishing and compromised databases still rule the day. This Week in Breach highlights incidents involving a New York-based gaming developer, medical data held by a University, and the disclosure of sensitive data held by a popular babysitter application.
Highlights from The Week in Breach:
- Dark Web Ads!
- Twitch.tv sees a breach.
- Healthcare Nightmare!
In Other News:
Is Breaking Bad?
A German company by the name of Breaking Security has been up in arms about the use of their legitimate software named Remcos (Remote Control and Surveillance). Remcos is used for managing Windows systems remotely and is increasingly being used by hackers for malicious attacks known as Remote Access Trojan (RAT). The question is, however… are they telling the truth? Researchers have uncovered that the product sold by the company is widely advertised on Dark Web hacking forums and it seems that not only does the organization know that this is happening, they are encouraging it. Breaking Security has strongly stated that any license linked to malicious hacking campaigns are revoked, yet still, many hacking campaigns continue to use the service.
https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/attackers-using-legitimate-remote-admin-tool-in-multiple-threat-campaigns/d/d-id/1332631
Not So Private Messages
In May, the popular live streaming service, Twitch, exposed user’s private messages because of a bug in their code. The Amazon subsidiary disabled the service, which allowed users to download an archive of past messages. When a user requested this archive, the game streaming company accidentally intertwined messages from other users. Twitch has come out and said that this only affected a limited number of users and has provided a link for customers to visit so they can find out if any of their messages were exposed and what the messages were.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/twitch-glitch-exposed-some-users-private-messages/
Podcasts:
Know Tech Talks – Hosted by Barb Paluszkiewicz
IT Provider Network – The Podcast for Growing IT Service
The Continuum Podcast
Security Now – Hosted by Steve Gibson, Leo Laporte
Small Business, Big Marketing – Australia’s #1 Marketing Show!
United States – Augusta University
Exploit: Email compromise by phishing attacks.
Risk to Small Business: High: This is a significant breach in scale and severity, and due to the sensitive nature of the data compromised the organization will likely face heavy fines.
Individual Risk: Extreme: Individuals affected by this breach are at high risk for identity theft, as well as their medical information being sold on the Dark Web.
Augusta University: Georgia based healthcare network.
Date Occurred/Discovered: September 10, 2017 – July 11, 2018
Date Disclosed: August 20, 2018
Data Compromised:
- Medical record numbers
- Treatment information
- Surgical details
- Demographic information
- Medical data
- Diagnoses
- Medications
- Dates of services
- Insurance information
- Social Security numbers
- Driver’s license numbers
Customers Impacted: 417,000
https://www.augusta.edu/notice/message.php
United States - Animoto
Exploit: Undisclosed.
Risk to Small Business: High: A breach of customer trust, especially involving geolocation data, can be highly damaging to a company’s image.
Individual Risk: Moderate: Users affected by this breach are at a higher risk of spam and phishing.
Animoto: New York-based company that provides a cloud-based video-making service for social media sites.
Date Occurred/Discovered: July 10, 2018
Date Disclosed: August 2018
Data Compromised:
- Names
- Dates of birth
- User email addresses
- Salted and hashed passwords
- Geolocation
Customers Impacted: Unclear.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/20/animoto-hack-exposes-personal-information-geolocation-data/
United States - Sitter
Exploit: Exposed MongoDB database.
Risk to Small Business: High: Most customers would be uncomfortable with a company leaking data about their kids and when they are left alone with someone who doesn’t live there.
Individual Risk: High: A lot of sensitive personal information was exposed in this breach, much of it unsettling.
Sitter: An app that connects babysitters and parents.
Date Occurred/Discovered: August 14, 2018
Date Disclosed: August 14, 2018
Data Compromised:
- Encrypted passwords
- Number of children per family
- User home addresses
- Phone numbers
- Users address book contacts
- Partial payment card numbers
- Past in-app chats
- Details about sitting sessions
- Locations
- Times
Customers Impacted: 93,000.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/incident-report-no1-babysitter-application-exposure-bob-diachenko/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/mongodb-server-exposes-babysitting-apps-database/
Australia – Melbourne High School
Exploit: Negligence.
Risk to Small Business: Extreme: This is a major exposure of sensitive and potentially embarrassing information that could irreparably damage a company’s reputation.
Individual Risk: High: Those affected by the data breach have sensitive information about their personal medical information that is considered highly private and could leave them exposed to identity theft.
Melbourne High School: School in Melbourne.
Date Occurred/Discovered: August 20-22, 2018
Date Disclosed: August 22, 2018
Data Compromised:
- Medical information
- Mental health conditions
- Learning behavioral difficulties
Customers Impacted: 300 students.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/22/melbourne-student-health-records-posted-online-in-appalling-privacy-breach
