Hacking Incidents

[legoman]

There have been several high profile attacks on corporate customer databases over recent years, the latest 2 being Qantas and Co-Op (I'm impacted by both)

I'm no computer expert. I do watch YouTube videos by Perogi and Jim Browning so I have an understanding of how scammers operate.

But what I'd like to know from anyone on here more clued up than me is how (in simple terms) is it possible for someone to hack into a corporate database and why does it seem on the face of it, that it is so difficult to prevent them?

 

[Cooperman]

I was a CIO from 2011 to 2018 and it’s this type of subject which would keep me awake at night. Upwards of 1500 users across fifteen different sites, some of which were in less mature parts of the globe, meant that user education was a constant feature of our work. Hackers go to extensive lengths to attack via social engineering or phishing and no firewall is really going to stop someone carelessly clicking on a malicious link. As well as education, we also ensured that sufficient budget and time was ringfenced for patching and security updates. I’m certain that not all companies do as much as they can in this regard.

 

[legoman]

I was a CIO from 2011 to 2018 and it’s this type of subject which would keep me awake at night. Upwards of 1500 users across fifteen different sites, some of which were in less mature parts of the globe, meant that user education was a constant feature of our work. Hackers go to extensive lengths to attack via social engineering or phishing and no firewall is really going to stop someone carelessly clicking on a malicious link. As well as education, we also ensured that sufficient budget and time was ringfenced for patching and security updates. I’m certain that not all companies do as much as they can in this regard.

Interesting. I would assume that the introduction of two factor authorisation, the Incidence of hacking against individuals has reduced? Or is that naive?

Can't corporates use 2FA in their systems?

 

[Cooperman]

Interesting. I would assume that the introduction of two factor authorisation, the Incidence of hacking against individuals has reduced? Or is that naive?

Can't corporates use 2FA in their systems?

2FA is a key tool in the defence of an IT domain, but don’t assume that all corporate enterprises are on top of these types of things. Lots of it comes down to the effectiveness of the management team which owns budget, strategy, system roadmaps, user education, etc. There are lots of harsh lessons learned when it comes to IT security.

 

[legoman]

2FA is a key tool in the defence of an IT domain, but don’t assume that all corporate enterprises are on top of these types of things. Lots of it comes down to the effectiveness of the management team which owns budget, strategy, system roadmaps, user education, etc. There are lots of harsh lessons learned when it comes to IT security.

Plus I suppose budgetary constraints sometimes dictate an outsourcing option is pursued and that means a more arms length control over things like IT security.

But my initial reason for posting was more about how do these hackers actually do it? Is it simply that they are able to obtain one set of log in credentials and that is enough.to gain access? Clearly I was able to log into my works email and other systems, but I was not able to get into the guts of the programming. How do hackers do that?

 

[J_B]

I sometimes wonder whether World War 3 will be fought online more than anywhere else.
If you can hack into various systems you could, theoretically, bring a country to its knees. Imagine the panic if all financial institutions went down simultaneously and stayed down for a week.

 

[Cooperman]

Plus I suppose budgetary constraints sometimes dictate an outsourcing option is pursued and that means a more arms length control over things like IT security.

But my initial reason for posting was more about how do these hackers actually do it? Is it simply that they are able to obtain one set of log in credentials and that is enough.to gain access? Clearly I was able to log into my works email and other systems, but I was not able to get into the guts of the programming. How do hackers do that?

There is considerable trial and error involved. Sometimes it starts with simply obtaining log in credentials (from folk who have their password as ‘password’), but on other occasions they will use complex scripts which fire threats at systems in order to look for vulnerabilities in security updates, patches and so on. There are many ways of achieving the same goal, but some routes are quicker than others and depend on the strength of IT security. Is anything impregnable, I’m not so sure.

 

[FearOfAJackPlanet]

As Cooperman alluded to earlier, whilst defences against traditional hacking has improved a lot, those looking to get into an orgs systems have long realized the main weakness is often not code, but people. Social engineering is a major problem, and it's not even just phishing emails, in some cases it's straight up physical in-person befriending of targeted people. People are often the trojan horses that allow hackers into places they would struggle to get into otherwise. Once they're 'in the door' their task is a lot easier.

 

[monmouth]

People treat IT security training as trivial, as if they know it all. Then some idiot clicks on a link, often from a trusted name on a spam email. If people don’t do the mandatory training every year now and pass a test, their card is marked, and some of their access is blocked until they do it and pass it. The test is far too easy though.