Advanced Persistent Threat At Sony Picture Entertainment ( Spe ) Breach Essay

What type of attack was launched on Sony? The assault on Sony network is believed to have been started with a simple spear phishing attack. This phishing attack allow the hacker group ‘Guardian of peace’ to gain access to the network by stealing network credentials. More than likely the simple phishing cause an un-trained employee to give up their network credentials with out a fight. “Analysis conducted by AlienVault revealed that the source code was specifically designed to target the Sony Pictures. The source code examined by Alien Vault used a simple login and password to gain access to Sony Pictures corporate network”( ). Experts believe that the hacker recycle a previous found code from all ready pre-existing malware, specialist had a look at the code and uncovered that this preexisting code was modified/written and send out by Korean speaking hackers.

In December 2013, the CEO, Gregg Steinhafle, of Target announced that their company was affected by a data breach that occurred between November 27 and December 15, 2013. “Target disclosed that online thieves hacked into its computer system, stealing credit card or personal information from more than 100 million customers. Both personal data and credit card information may have been stolen from about 12 million people” (Abrams, 2014). The outcome of this breach has cost Gregg Steinhafle his job, as well as the trust of Target’s consumers, investors, and close to $150 million in breach-related costs. This breach is considered one of the largest retail data breaches in U.S. history due to the amount of personal data and credit card

In Western power grid attack, APT was well organized. They used both active and passive reconnaissance methods to gather information. We have found the traces of attackers IP in the network logs provided by Intelligence services. This tells us that attackers had used Active Reconnaissance to get network

A data breach is an incident in which sensitive, protected or confidential data has potentially been viewed, stolen or used by an individual unauthorized to do so. Data breaches may involve personal health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), trade secrets or intellectual property. The most common concept of a data breach is an attacker hacking into a corporate network to steal sensitive data. However, not all data breaches are so dramatic. If an unauthorized hospital employee views a patient's health information on a computer screen over the shoulder of an authorized employee that also constitutes a data breach.

In December 2013, Target was attacked by a cyber-attack due to a data breach. Target is a widely known retailer that has millions of consumers flocking every day to the retailer to partake in the stores wonders. The Target Data Breach is now known as the largest data breach/attack surpassing the TJX data breach in 2007. “The second-biggest attack struck TJX Companies, the parent company of TJMaxx and Marshall’s, which said in 2007 that about 45 million credit cards and debit cards had been compromised.” (Timberg, Yang, & Tsukayama, 2013) The data breach occurred to Target was a strong swift kick to the guts to not only the retailer/corporation, but to employees and consumers. The December 2013 data breach, exposed Target in a way that many

An APT or Advanced persistent threat is a group of people who are highly motivated (financially, politically or economically) working together, well skilled, and patient. They have advanced technical tool which is not available to other attackers. They use vulnerabilities revealed by the APT or APT sponsor that is not disclosed to anyone else hence it's very difficult to defend them. They're chronic and consciousness on exploiting one or more unique objectives instead of just any target of opportunity. APT use social engineering as a tool to get more details of those specific targets. APTs are either funded by Governments or adversaries as they need a lot of resources to go after any target. APTs are well organized as they could move after the easy objectives and avoid the comfortable networks. It goes after particular goals primarily based on what it desires to take advantage of from the ones targets. An APT might be willing to make investments months or years of time toward infiltrating and Compromising a desired goal. APTs might be military units, different government-sponsored entities, or beneath the control of nongovernmental actors, including organizations, activist agencies, or organized crime. Few examples in which

As mentioned previously, we believe that the APT involved in our attack is in the weaponized phase of an attack. In this phase, the APT will used the information he or she obtained from the reconnaissance phase to develop a weapon (i.e. malware with an additional payload) specifically designed to target our weaknesses. The common method for delivery is email; however, it could be a fake website that users are redirected to. For example, users access their social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, or even the previously mentioned LinkenIn) and they open a private message with an attachment or link to the fake website where the user inadvertently launches the cleverly designed attack. In creating the weaponized attack, APTs have access

Cyber threats have increased dramatically over the past few years, with large companies such as Amazon, Netflex, PayPal, Wikipedia and most recently Equifax, experiencing high profile breaches. Traditional tools, defenses and responses have been strained with keeping up with the level and sophistication of an very organized and ubiquitous hacking community, which has coalesced into organized crime syndicates that the FBI and law enforcement continues to battle.

People across the world are becoming disproportionately dependent on modern day technology, which results in more vulnerability to cyber-attacks including cybersecurity breaches. Today, the world continues to experience inordinate cases of cybersecurity meltdowns. There is a rapid growth in complexity and volume of cyber-attacks, and this undermines the success of security measures put in place to make the cyberspace secure for users. Cyber-attacks on both private and public information systems are a major issue for information security as well as the legal system. While most states require government organizations and certain federal vendors to report incidences of data breaches, no equivalent legislation exists to cover private entities.

Advanced Research Corporation (ARC) has grown quickly in the last five years. During that time, ARC has seen a large expansion in its data and communications network. Because of its success, ARC has seen cyber-attacks on its network with attempts to steal its

Advanced persistent threat (APT) is most critical information security threat. Competitor companies could try such attacks with intent of having ongoing access to DBR’s research data. In these attacks, the data is not damaged or deleted, but is stolen without raising any alarms. This is the most advanced and critical threat because with APT attacks, competitors can have unrestricted access to DBR’s network and data for as long as they desire.

Cyber-attacks are common in the defense industry, but in January 2010, a sophisticated, advanced persistent threat hacked into the commercial sector forever changing the face of cyber security. Dubbed “Operation Aurora” by McAfee, the attack targeted specific high profile corporations to obtain valuable intellectual property. Google, Yahoo, Juniper Networks and Adobe Systems were also among the victims of this highly coordinated cyber heist. By manipulating computer codes the attackers were able to exploit the Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerabilities to gain access and obtain valuable sensitive information from over thirty high profile companies. Operation Aurora proves that the world is entering into a high-risk era where

In the last decade it’s amazing how technology has advanced over the years and will continue to advance for many years to come. Every year there is a new cell phone from Apple or Samsung, with new features that make our lives more convenient. From faster software to higher picture quality and so on. I am unable to recall the last time I used a camera to take pictures or went to the bank to deposit a check. Technology advances every day and many can’t wait to see what’s next to come. But with new technology comes greater risk for violations of privacy. In the following research paper I will discuss the types of security breaches and the cost associated with these breaches that businesses around the world face on a daily basis.

As we allow the Internet to become more and more embedded into our lives the topic of cyber security also need to become more embedded in our lives as well. Duncan Campbell, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, points out, “Now more than ever, the world is vulnerable to hacking, phishing, data breaches, malware attacks and denial of service attempts from bad actors and nation states who want to compromise individual identification data and wreak havoc on our economy,” (Campbell). Each year we here about these attacks, Target, T. J. Maxx, Home Depot just to name a few. More concerning then, the frequency of these attacks is the magnitude of the data lost in these attacks.

The APT also might have taken advantage of the Passive Reconnaissance techniques to attack its target. By using tools, such as NSLOOKUP, TRACERT and WHOIS database, the APT could have gathered information about the domain names, computer names, IP addresses, DNS resource records, host names, SMTP servers, and Web servers. Once the APT had gathered all the data, it could have used more advance tools like NMAP. Tools such as NMAP allow the use of TCP fingerprinting, which could have led to the discovery of the operating systems that were running on computers at the power plant. The APT could have also used TELNET, FTP and HTTP to gain information about the Web servers, browsers, plugins, etc. With information on operating systems, open vulnerable ports, and the services at its disposal, the APT could have launched a DDoS, buffer overflow exploits, and other attacks against the target.