As the year comes to a close, we take a look back at six data breaches that dominated the headlines and defined the state of cyber security in 2016.

It could be said that 2016 was the “Year of the Hacker.” From healthcare to politics to adult entertainment, no industry was spared the wrath of cyber criminals. Here, we reflect on six of this year’s most infamous data breaches.

1. The SWIFT Network Attacks

It was a plot that sounded like it came straight out of a Bond movie: A band of international bank robbers stole nearly $100 million from a bank in Bangladesh, spooking finance executives around the world and leaving them wondering where the thieves would strike next. But these robbers didn’t hand a note to a teller or dynamite their way into a vault; they breached the victimized banks’ networks and accessed their accounts on the SWIFT network, a proprietary messaging system that few people outside the finance industry have ever heard of. Once inside SWIFT, they were able to remotely send billions of dollars in fraudulent money transfer requests. Most of these were caught and flagged, but $81 million went through, and the hackers remain at large. These data breaches sent shockwaves through the finance world and threw into question the integrity of what was once thought to be one of the world’s safest networks.

2. The Yahoo Data Breach

The Yahoo data breach, which compromised 500 million user accounts, resulted in at least 23 lawsuits, and put the company’s planned acquisition by Verizon at risk, didn’t happen out of nowhere. It was the result of years of the company putting cyber security on the back burner in the name of not compromising “the user experience.” Other companies should look to Yahoo as an example of what can happen – in fact, what is bound to eventually happen – when information security is not taken seriously. While it’s true that end users of software products can be fickle and impatient, it is far better to risk annoying customers with product security measures than to leave their personal information open to data breaches.

3. The DNC Hack

Cyber security took center stage early on in this year’s contentious U.S. presidential election, and the Democratic National Committee became the poster child for embarrassing email data breaches. In June, WikiLeaks released a number of damaging emails stolen from the DNC’s email server. Among the “highlights” were what appeared to be messages written by high-ranking party officials plotting to smear candidate Bernie Sanders and planning to reward high-dollar DNC donors with federal appointments in an anticipated Hillary Clinton administration. As if that weren’t bad enough, some of the emails compromised these same donors’ private data, with one email attachment containing an un-redacted image of a six-figure check, complete with the donor’s routing and bank account numbers. The hack was so scandalous that the DNC’s chairperson, CEO, and communications director were forced to resign.

4. The FriendFinder Data Breaches

Apparently, last year’s Ashley Madison data breach didn’t teach companies that store sensitive information to be adults about data security. In October, news broke that six sites owned by FriendFinder Networks, Inc., owners of some of the world’s largest adult entertainment sites, had been hacked. Over 412 million user accounts were compromised, most of which came from a site called AdultFriendFinder, which bills itself as the “World’s Largest Sex and Swinger Community.” In addition to users’ email addresses and passwords – which had been stored as plain text or hashed and converted to all lower-case, making them far easier to compromise – hackers also got hold of the company’s source code and private/public key pairs. As of this writing, the FriendFinder hack is set to win the “award” for the largest data breach of 2016.

5. The Wendy’s POS Hack

Where’s the cyber security? Around the same time fast-food chain Wendy’s announced it would be switching from human clerks to automated ordering kiosks, the company was forced to admit that it had been victimized by a massive breach of its existing POS systems, which exposed customer credit card information captured at 1,000 of its locations in the U.S. Rather than taking responsibility for the data breaches, Wendy’s decided to pass the buck, insisting that “only” independently owned franchises, not company-owned locations, had been breached, and further claiming that the breaches were the fault of third-party POS service providers hired by its franchisees. This spin-doctoring didn’t dissuade dozens of credit unions from joining a class-action lawsuit against the chain, alleging that Wendy’s knew that its POS systems were not secure but did nothing to address the problems.

6. The Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center Ransomware Attack

While it was not technically a data breach, we felt we would be remiss if we did not mention the infamous Hollywood Presbyterian ransomware attack, which happened early in the year and was a harbinger of things to come for the healthcare industry. Hackers managed to lock down the hospital’s entire network, including its electronic health records (EHR) system. Hollywood Presbyterian ended up forking over $17,000 in Bitcoin to get back in – an act which, unfortunately, emboldened hackers, who now knew they could easily extort big paydays from healthcare facilities. A spate of similar attacks hit medical facilities across the U.S., Canada, and even the U.K. As of this writing, Intel estimates that hospitals have paid various hackers nearly $1,000,000 in ransom this year.

Here’s hoping that 2017 is the year the “good guys” finally get the upper hand in the fight against data breaches, ransomware, and other cyber crimes.

The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. We offer full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC software to protect companies from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization secure your systems.

Online shopping is booming, but customers will shun e-commerce if they do not feel their data is secure.

Just as “Video Killed the Radio Star,” e-commerce is making shopping malls go the way of the horse and buggy. In 2016, consumers reported making 51% of their purchases online, up from 48% in 2015 and 47% in 2014. Meanwhile, real estate experts estimate that large brick-and-mortar department stores need to eliminate about 1/5 of their current footprint in malls just to return to the same levels of productivity they enjoyed a decade ago.

Consumers love the convenience and cost savings of ordering items online and having their purchases shipped to their door, but they will quickly sour on an e-commerce site if they feel their credit card information and personal data are not safe. Following are five tips for keeping your e-commerce store safe from hackers during the holiday season and throughout the year.

1. Make sure your e-commerce store is PCI DSS compliant.

While PCI DSS compliance alone does not equate to a comprehensive e-commerce cyber security, being compliant with PCI DSS is the first step – and it’s required by major card issuers. Additionally, some states have laws that refer to PCI DSS explicitly or contain equivalent mandated standards. If you are breached, and it turns out that your e-commerce store was not PCI DSS compliant, your store may be found in violation of your state’s laws regarding data privacy, and the credit card companies that mandate PCI DSS could impose fines on your organization amounting to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you are unable to pay the fines, you will no longer be able to accept their cards. Plus, your customers’ data will have been breached, which could result in civil lawsuits and massive damage to your store’s reputation.

2. Make sure all of your hardware and software is up to date.

Antivirus and antimalware software should be updated regularly, and any manufacturer updates or patches to your operating system and other software used in your business should be downloaded and installed as soon as possible; they often include important security patches addressing newly discovered threats.

3. Make sure all of your employees, including temps, are trained in cyber security best practices.

The weakest link in any business’ cyber security plan is its people. The overwhelming majority of data breaches occur after hackers obtain legitimate login credentials, often through social engineering schemes such as phishing emails. Make sure all of your e-commerce store’s employees, including seasonal workers, are trained in cyber security best practices, such as how to spot phishing emails and why they should never send personal data through unsecured email, share their passwords or leave them out in the open, or log in to the network on an unsecured device or connection.

4. Create a culture of “if you see something, say something” regarding e-commerce cyber security.

Employees, especially seasonal workers, want to please their bosses, and this is something hackers take advantage of through schemes such as “spear phishing,” where hackers send what looks like a legitimate email from the business owner or a c-level executive to a low-level employee, requesting sensitive information such as system login credentials or e-commerce customer data. Employees should be instructed to report all suspicious emails or any other activity that just doesn’t seem right – even if they think “it’s probably nothing” – to a supervisor.

5. Place appropriate restrictions on employee’s system access.

E-commerce employees, especially temporary workers, should be given the minimum level of system access they need to perform their jobs, and no more. If at all possible, limit access to your most sensitive data – such as customer payment information and employee tax data – to full-time, year-round employees. The reasoning is that full-timers have a track record with your company, have far more experience with cyber security best practices than your temps, and probably underwent a more extensive background check as well.

The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. We offer full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC software to protect companies from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization secure your systems.

IoT manufacturers should take heed from the recent Mirai DDoS attacks.

Recently, a widespread attack on Dyn’s DNS “Managed DNS” infrastructure wreaked havoc across the internet and brought down a number of major websites, including PayPal, Twitter, Amazon, Netflix, GitHub, and Reddit. Instead of going after the sites directly, Mirai targeted the web’s domain name system (DNS), which acts as an “address book” that matches common domain names, such as Amazon.com, with their corresponding DNS addresses, which are what browsers use to locate the site’s web server and load its content. The source of the attack was an open source malware strain called Mirai, which works by infecting vulnerable IoT devices, such as routers, printers, webcams, even DVRs.

How does Mirai infect IoT devices?

The Mirai malware takes advantage of a very serious vulnerability in IoT devices: the fact that most users do not change the default passwords their devices are shipped with, either because they don’t know how, they don’t realize the importance of doing so, or both. In some cases, the login credentials may be encoded in the device’s firmware, making it difficult or impossible for end users to change them. Meanwhile, manufacturer default passwords are widely available online. There are 68 user name and password combinations in the Mirai botnet source code, many of which are used for multiple IoT devices made by the same manufacturers. Therefore, just one set of credentials could allow a hacker to access hundreds, possibly thousands of devices.

Hackers use Mirai to scan the internet for specific devices, then attempt to access them using their manufacturer default credentials. Once hackers access a device, they turn it into a “zombie” – often without the device’s owner even realizing it. Once a large number of “zombie” devices have been amassed, they are used to flood specific web servers with so many junk requests that they slow to a crawl or crash.

IoT Manufacturers Have Been Put on Notice

Cyber security issues have plagued the IoT industry for years, and as these devices proliferate, cyber attacks that involve connected devices are becoming more frequent and more serious. Yet, as discussed in a previous blog, only 10% of organizations have a cyber security plan to address the Internet of Things, and 68% have no methods for testing IoT devices. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of consumers report being “very” or “highly concerned” about IoT security.

As a result of the Mirai malware attack, Chinese manufacturer Hangzhou Xiongmai voluntarily recalled its home webcams, and it’s possible that we’ll see more recalls if and when Mirai rears its head again. Of course, IoT manufacturers could and must take proactive steps to prevent these sorts of attacks in the first place. IoT devices should be configured to require users to change the default credentials the first time they log in, preferably to a strong password, and manufacturers should never hard-code credentials into a device’s firmware.

Unfortunately, the Mirai malware isn’t going anywhere, and if IoT manufacturers do not step up to the plate, it could be altered for use in even more insidious attacks in the future.

The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. We offer full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC software to protect companies from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization secure your systems.