Doping allegations, illegal gambling, and other attempts to game the system and give a player or a team an edge have long plagued the professional sports world. Now, the cheating has gone cyber. Chris Correa, a former executive with the Saint Louis Cardinals MLB team, has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for hacking into the Houston Astros’ database and stealing confidential information that could have given the Cardinals an unfair advantage. It is unclear how many other Cardinals employees – if any – were aware of the Houston Astros hack, and the MLB is looking into taking action against the team as a whole.

However, whether or not the MLB decides to sanction the Cardinals, the Astros need to clean up their cyber security act, and other organizations should take heed of the mistakes the team made.

How Did the Houston Astros Hack Happen?

Although it involved the glamorous world of professional sports, the Houston Astros hack was just like most other data breaches. It happened not because a hacker found a “backdoor” into the system but through the use of stolen login credentials. Many times, these credentials are stolen via a phishing scheme, but Correa didn’t have to bother with putting one together; in fact, he may not have possessed the technical prowess to launch a phishing scheme.

According to court documents, a former Cardinals employee, identified only as “Victim A,” left the Cardinals to join the Astros organization in late 2011. Victim A was instructed to hand over his work laptop – and its password – to Correa. Correa, apparently figuring that the employee would use the same password or something very close to it in his new position, attempted to use the information to access the Astros’ database. He eventually figured it out and proceeded to steal confidential information regarding the player draft, trade negotiations, and other sensitive data. Even worse, after the Astros updated their database, Correa was able to obtain the new login information by accessing Victim A’s email account, where he found a message containing default login information to the new database system.

While Correa’s behavior was reprehensible, the Houston Astros hack didn’t have to happen. The organization could have prevented the breach by taking a few basic proactive security measures:

• Victim A’s practice of using a password that was very similar to the one he’d used at his previous job is a common error; despite security experts advising them otherwise, most people use the same password for multiple sites. Employees should not be allowed to choose their own passwords; instead, they should be assigned strong passwords and be required to change them on a regular basis.
• Systems that contain highly sensitive data should require multi-factor authentication upon login, not just a user name and password.
• Default login information should never be disseminated to employees through email. This information should be given to each employee in hard copy, and the system should automatically require the employee to change their default credentials the first time they log in.
• All systems should be continuously monitored for anomalous activity, such as an employee logging in from an unusual location or at odd hours.

The Houston Astros hack should be a wakeup call to organizations in all industries. It was not masterminded by a skilled hacker but a regular individual who took advantage of basic security flaws. Instead of being proactive, the Astros were reactive with their information security, and Correa’s plea deal estimates that their carelessness with employee passwords cost them $1.7 million.

Many organizations do not have the resources to handle all of their information security needs in-house; many others don’t know where to start. This is why they should partner with a professional cyber security firm such as Lazarus Alliance. 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, spear phishing 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.

Wendy’s Data Breach: Forget the beef, where’s the cyber security?

The scope of the recent Wendy’s data breach, which has already resulted in a class-action lawsuit against the fast-food giant, is about to get much bigger. Krebs on Security reports having received information from “a number of sources in the fraud and banking community” alleging that “that there was no way the Wendy’s breach only affected five percent of stores [as Wendy’s originally reported] — given the volume of fraud that the banks have traced back to Wendy’s customers.” Even worse, these same sources allege that “the breach was still ongoing well after Wendy’s made the five percent claim in May.”

Backed into a corner, Wendy’s finally released a statement to Krebs on Security admitting that the number of locations affected was expected to be “considerably higher” than the approximately 300 originally reported. However, Wendy’s declined to estimate how many locations were involved, citing an ongoing investigation. Interestingly, the company emphasized that the breaches affected only independently owned franchise restaurants, not company-owned locations, and claimed that the breach was the fault of third-party service providers hired by franchisees to service and maintain their POS systems.

If that sounds like Wendy’s is passing the buck, it’s because they are. Rather than taking responsibility for the cyber security shenanigans going on under the Wendy’s banner, Wendy’s is choosing to place the blame on its franchisees and their third-party vendors: “They’re independently owned and operated, so we have no control over what they do!” It remains to be seen whether the courts will side with Wendy’s on this legal hairsplitting, but it’s unlikely that consumers will see things Wendy’s way. To a consumer, a Wendy’s location is a Wendy’s location, regardless of whether the corporation owns it or has franchised it out, and if consumers do not trust that their payment card data is safe at Wendy’s, they’ll stop patronizing their restaurants.

How Could the Wendy’s Data Breach Have Been Prevented?

Wendy’s claims that its POS systems were compromised using credentials stolen from POS service providers; these credentials allowed hackers to remotely access the POS systems. As discussed in a previous blog, there are numerous measures that restaurants and retailers can take to secure their POS systems, including monitoring the system for suspicious activity, such as someone logging in from an unusual location or accessing parts of the system they would have no legitimate reason to. The Wendy’s data breach could have been prevented had the company taken its cyber security seriously and implemented proactive security measures, but the company chose not to. Instead, it chose to pass the buck on its POS security, and then attempt to deflect responsibility onto its franchisees instead of getting out in front of the problem.

This begs the question, is the Wendy’s data breach a harbinger of things to come as the fast-food industry transitions from human clerks to automated ordering kiosks and touch screens? Consumers and the government are not yet asking this question, but if incidents like the Wendy’s data breach multiply, it’s certain they will be.

The core competency of a restaurant is food preparation, not information security, which is why restaurants should partner with a professional cyber security firm such as Lazarus Alliance. 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 retail and restaurant POS systems from security breaches. We offer full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC software to protect companies from data breaches, spear phishing attacks, and other cyber threats, as well as help them get and remain PCI DSS compliant.

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 restaurant protect its POS data and ensure compliance with PCI DSS.

When contracting with a service provider, such as a data center, it is important for companies to ensure that their provider possesses the cyber security-related certifications and compliance standards that are applicable to the company’s industry. Data centers, as well as service providers who contract with data centers, sometimes claim to be “SSAE 16” certified. In an effort to cut through the noise and clear up some of the confusion regarding SSAE 16 compliance, Lazarus Alliance would like to clarify what SSAE 16 compliance is—and isn’t.

What is SSAE 16?

SSAE 16 is an internationally recognized auditing standard for service organizations. It was developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and replaces the previous standard, SAS 70. SSAE 16 reporting helps service organizations comply with the requirements of Sarbanes Oxley (section 404) to demonstrate effective internal controls covering financial reporting. SSAE 16 applies to data centers that host systems that are involved in their clients’ financial reporting, as well as web hosting providers, ASPs, and ISPs who perform services that are relevant to their clients’ financial reporting.

There are three types of reports that can be issued: an SOC 1, an SOC 2, or an SOC 3, all of which address different controls. Performing an SSAE 16 audit and issuing an SOC report demonstrates a service provider’s commitment to maintaining a sound control environment that protects their clients’ data and confidential information.

Some service providers who use SSAE 16-compliant data centers imply that they are, somehow, SSAE 16 compliant by proxy. This is not the case; just because you use a provider who is SSAE 16 compliant does not mean that your company is SSAE compliant, and to imply such is black-hat marketing.

There is No Such Thing as SSAE 16 “Certification”

A Google search on “SSAE 16” reveals numerous instances of companies claiming to be “SSAE 16 Certified.” Organizations are compliant with SSAE 16; there is no such thing as becoming “SSAE certified.” SSAE 16 has to do with issuing SOC reports; no “certification” is awarded to anyone. Beware of any service provider that claims to possess an SSAE 16 “certification” or purports to be working towards getting one.

Need SSAE 16 Compliance Auditing Services?

If you have questions about SSAE 16, or if your company needs SSAE 16 auditing services, Lazarus Alliance can help! Depending on your team’s availability, our SSAE 16 audit process initially takes just a few weeks from start to completion. We realize that our clients have full-time, everyday obligations in addition to dealing with auditors, so we will be happy to work around your schedule and provide a quality audit and report in the time frame you desire.

Lazarus Alliance’s primary purpose is to help organizations attain, maintain, and demonstrate compliance and information security excellence in all jurisdictions. Lazarus Alliance specializes in IT security, risk, privacy, governance, cyberspace law, and compliance leadership solutions and is fully dedicated to global success in these disciplines. Learn more about Lazarus Alliance and why Lazarus Alliance is Proactive Cyber Security™!