Abstract
In December 2013, over 40 million credit cards were stolen from nearly 2000 Target stores by accessing data on point of sale (POS) systems. This paper will explore known issues in the Target breach. From what is known about the Target breach, there were multiple factors that led to data loss: vendors were subject to phishing attacks, network segregation was lacking, point of sale systems were vulnerable to memory scraping malware and detection strategies employed by Target failed. A possible solution for preventing and mitigating similar breaches using a prevention measures. Considerations of human factors that contributed to the losses in this case will also be addressed.
Table of contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………2
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………. 4
Case overview…………………………………………………………………………………….5
How did it happened………………………………………………………………………………5
Cost of breach……………………………………………………………………………………..6
Quality Assurance Practices for Computer Forensics……………………………………….……7
Quality Control for Cyber Forensic Process………………………………………………………8
Cyber Forensic Investigation Process……………………………………………………………10
Recommendation………………………………………………………………………………...11
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….13
References
Introduction
Forensics is the use of examination and investigation procedures to accumulate and save prove from a computing device in a way that is appropriate for presentation in a courtroom. The objective of computer
Forensic science is defined as the practice of utilizing scientific methodologies to clarify judicial inquiries. The field of forensic science contains a broad range of disciplines and has become a vital aspect of criminal investigations. Some forensic disciplines are laboratory-based; while others are based on an analyst’s interpretation of observable patterns (Kourtsounis, 2009). According to the Innocence project’s website; in greater than fifty percent of wrongful convictions, the use of invalidated or improper forensic techniques played a role in cases; which were later
In December of 2013, target corporation faced a serious security breach where over 40 million credit cards were stolen from different target stores. This paper is going to explore the problem, the background information about the problem, the controls that could have been in place to prevent the issue, the intended plan of control and the associated risks involved.
This paper explores seven references that report the results from research conducted on-line regarding the 2013 Target breach. According to the website “Timeline of Target 's Data Breach And Aftermath: How Cybertheft Snowballed For The Giant Retailer” (2015), the breach occurred November and December 2013 in which customers who shopped at Target locations credit and debit cards were breached and their personal information was exposed. Upon their investigation, it was determined their point of sale system was hacked. “Wikipedia” states point of sale system which is used by third party vendors has cash registers as well as barcodes which stores customer’s information. The website “What is Packet Sniffer” (2016), Packet Sniffing may have been a way the attacked happened. “RAM Scraping Attack” website indicates what RAM means and how this type of attack happens. “What is a Firewall in Networking and How They Protect Your Computers” (2014), “What is Endpoint Security? Data Protection 101” and “Why SSL? The Purpose of using SSL Certificates” websites each provide ways to reduce and/or prevent future attacks.
During the last Christmas season, Target announced that their data security was breached. According to David Lazarus in Los Angeles Times, Target stated that roughly 110 million customers’ information was illegally taken from their database. The information included their credit/debit card info, phone numbers, and email addresses. Target is one of the most popular grocery stores in the U.S.; they have a substantial amount of consumers. Because of this incident, consumers' trusts for the store have been decreasing. Worrying about losing its customers, the company offered a free year of credit monitoring and identity-theft protection, so the customers will feel more secure. Not only Target, some other large retailers also faced the same issues. They want their customers to trust that the companies can protect private data. However, should we not worry? Data breaches have been going on for about a decade, but we have not seriously thought about the issue. In order to protect people’s privacy, the federal government should make new laws concerning companies’ handling of customer information.
Michael’s Store, Inc. is an arts & crafts Retail chain. It has more than 1040 stores located in 49 US states & Canada. The company also owns and operates the Aaron brother’s retail chain, which happens to have an additional 115 stores across the Country. Michael’s store Inc. had a Security breach, which took place between May 8, 2013 and January 27, 2014. About 2.6 million cards or about 7 percent of payment cards used at its stores during the period were affected. Alarmingly, its subsidiary Aaron brothers also had been breached between June 26, 2013 and February 27, 2014. It was reported that Aaron brothers had 400,000 cards impacted. The duration of the treacherous attack in total was 8 months (Schwartz, 2014). In this report, security breach of Michael’s store Inc. is analyzed. The topics covered are how the breach occurred, what did the authorities do to educate the customers & how in future such attacks can be avoided.
From November 27 to December 15, 2013 Target Corporation released 70 million customers’ personal information. On average, it takes companies 200 days to uncover they are being hacked (Lunden, 2015). It only took Target 12 days to figure out the crisis that began happening. On December 19, Target originally said only 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been compromised during Black Friday weekend to December 15. “The information stolen included customer names, credit or debit card number, and the card’s expiration date and CVV” (McGrath, 2014). Although Target never clarified how they were hacked, security experts say that hackers targeted their POS system. “Target spent $61 million through Feb. 1 responding to the breach, according
The Target data breach remains one of the most notable breaches in history, it was the first time a CEO of a major corporation was fired due to a security event. The breach received an enormous amount of attention, it caused corporations and individuals to change the way they think about information security and data protection. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2013 hackers gained access to 40 million customer credit cards and personal data of 70 million Target customers. The intruders slipped in by using stolen credentials and from there gained access to vulnerable servers on Targets network to launch their attack and steal sensitive customer data from the POS cash registers. All this occurred without a response from Targets security operations center, even though security systems notified them of suspicious activity. The data was then sold on the black market for an estimated $53 million dollars. However, the cost to Target, creditors, and banks exceeded half of a billion dollars. This report will review how the infiltration occurred, what allowed the breach to occur including Targets response, and finally who was impacted by the security event.
In the middle of the holiday season, Target shoppers were knocked off their feet with the news that in December 2013 that 40 million Target credit card numbers had been stolen (Krebs, 2013f) by someone accessing Target’s data on their point of sale (POS) systems (Krebs, 2014b). To make matters worst Target later revised their number to include the private data for 70 million of their customers (Target, 2014). The breach took place period of November 27 through December 15th 2013 (Clark, 2014). Target had gotten taken for over 11 GB of their data that had been stolen (Poulin, 2014). Target did not catch their internal alerts and was informed about the breach when they were contacted by the Department of Justice (Riley, Elgin,
(April 2015) today our financial and personal information is everywhere. It is in our phones for mobile payments, in our wallets on our credit cards and in the data centers and clouds of the companies and third parties that complete transactions on our behalf. With so much personal information—quite literally—floating around various access points, it has never been more lucrative or easy for cyber-criminals to access and mine private information to sell on the black market.The Target data breach at the end of 2013, which affected the card payment information of more than 40 million shoppers and the personal data of almost 70 million consumers, kick-started a continuous barrage of point-of-sale (POS) attacks affecting consumers, businesses and banks throughout 2014. Between the breaches at Dairy Queen, Home Depot and Neiman Marcus, it seemed like cyber-criminals were always one step ahead of the game, using malware and card-skimming techniques to gain access to confidential
The word forensic is defined as relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence in a
When people usually hear the word forensics they usually automatically visualize crime scenes filled with things that can vary from blood, bullets, fingerprints ect. Unfortunately, it is not as cut and dry as you think, you're only seeing a small piece of the picture. The subject of forensics itself is very broad and actually involves a variety of different sciences all mixed together including, biology, chemistry, genetics, toxicology, phonetics, medicine, engineering, anthropology and many more. It is one of the fields of law enforcement, were technology and crime-solving all come together as one. Gathering the information needed to figure out what happened and the methods used to connect pieces of evidence to the crime scene were also not
In a world where technology is increasingly becoming the way of life, it was only a matter of time before crime was no longer just in the streets but happening online as well. Criminals now get a new approach to carry out their crimes with the use of computers. Since technology is more like a murder mystery than catching the bad guy in the act, a new discipline of forensics needed to be put into place. This is known as computer forensics. Forensic science is any science used for the purpose of law. In the case of computer forensics it is “the discipline that combines elements of law and computer science to collect and analyze data from computer systems, networks, wireless communications, and storage devices in a way that is admissible as evidence in a court of law” (U.S. Cert, 2008). Meaning if you do something illegal on the Internet it can be found.
Forensic science, also known as forensics, may generally be defined as the application of scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge to assist courts in resolving questions of fact in civil and criminal trials. In other words forensic science, in its broadest definition, is the application of science to law. Forensic science is carried out by forensic scientists, whose primary objective is the even-handed use of all the available information to determine the facts and ultimately the truth no matter who they are
Forensic science borrows from a number of sciences which include: physics, Biology and chemistry. It therefore involves examination of a wide spectrum as compared to any other method of investigation. Due to the wide spectrum of investigation and evidence analysis the method offers; it ensures that the results are accurate and can be used in the court of law to make a decision. The method establishes the existence of a crime, the connection between the crimes and the
Forensic Science is the application of scientific methods to matters involving the public or application of science in legal matters. Forensic science is synonymously also called as Medical jurisprudence. Forensic skies uses highly developed scientifically sound technologies to understand scientific evidence. Modern forensic science may be used for