Hackers strike again! Someone used a “back door” (exploitable flaw) in Verizon’s security system to get information for around 1.5 million Verizon Enterprise customers.
The person who got the information posted about it in an underground cyber crime forum. He advertised about selling the information for $100,000. He also offered to allow people to buy chunks of the information for $10,000. Luckily, they did not get into the major network of customer information. A security blog, KrebsOnSecurity, notified Verizon when they caught the post from the hacker. The hacker in question was also advertising selling the information about how they got into Verizon’s network.
The information was from some big business accounts, not individual consumers. Some of these customers were Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Verizon has not responded after being asked what the security flaw was. One big fish, Apple, uses Verizon in its retail stores. Apple just recently had their own servers hacked, so, this hacker threat was not what Apple needed right now.
Here is some of the statement issued by Verizon:
“Verizon recently discovered and remediated a security vulnerability on our enterprise client portal. Our investigation to date found an attacker obtained basic contact information on a number of our enterprise customers. No customer proprietary network information (CPNI) or other data was accessed or accessible.”
These companies are struggling to keep up with the rising threat of cyber crime. Hackers are getting more comfortable attacking these companies from the comfort of their own home.
The flaw in the system has been fixed, and customers affected are being notified. Even though it wasn’t individual customers, individuals within these companies may have to be worried about their data. This is just a reminder that no one is immune to these dangerous attacks.
Featured image by Mike Mozart via flickr.com, available under Creative Commons 2.0 license.
