CyberSecurity in the News

-Hackers Claim Magento Breach via Third-Party, Leak CRM Data of 700K Users-

Magento, a global platform for open source e-commerce that is used by thousands of businesses, had a hacker by the name "Satanic" leak CRM-style data for about 700k users. Hacking is when an unauthorized user gains access to something they shouldn't, and in this case, the CRM data system was hacked. This included the names, job titles, corporate emails, company domains, phone numbers, and social media links of the people who were exposed. However, this incident was due to third-party supply chain risks rather than security weaknesses in the platform of Magento itself. To prevent future hacks and unauthorized users from getting into their systems again, the data pipes feeding into Magento should tighten their security settings with stronger passwords and use methods such as two-factor authentication to allow its users to access their data, and Magento itself should look into the secirity risks of their third-party companies to ensure they are up to their personal company standards for data protection.

-Lee Enterprises Investigating Ransomware Claim, Data Leak Threat-

Lee Enterprises, a popular newspaper chain, was investigating a claim from the Qilin ransomware group that they stole 350 GB of data during a previous attack and threatened to begin leaking it, but the exact demand for ransom was not given. The impacts of the attack included disrupting print distribution, billing, payments, and other aspects of the publishing company. Although ransomware attacks can be difficult to prevent, it is known that the Qilin ransomware group's preferred method of attacking is through abusing stolen/compromised credentials or spearphishing. Ransomware attacks prevent organizations from accessing their information systems by locking them up, essentially holding them hostage, until a ransom is paid to give them back. Given their known preferred methods of attacking, to avoid ransomware attacks from this specific group, Lee Enterprises should require their passwords to be stronger and remove access to information systems for compromised accounts, and should also instruct its workers/members to confirm all communication to be the true person the sender claims to be prior to opening any links or downloading any attachments/programs.