Week 43 Cyberattack Digest 2018 – Wife Lovers, Cathay Pacific Airways, ObamaCare and others
Have you been waiting for our traditional week 43 cyber attack digest? If yes, we have something interesting for you.
Wife lovers are not secure
by Threatpost – 23 October 2018
Attacks on adult websites are not as common as, for example, the ones on financial organizations, still a data breach that affected Wife Lovers exposed data of over 1.2M users. Wife Lovers and seven sister adult-themed sites including asiansex4u[.]com; bbwsex4u[.]com; indiansex4u[.]com; nudeafrica[.]com; nudelatins[.]com; nudemen[.]com; and wifeposter[.]com, were targeted by attackers. The sites were dedicated to sharing intimate adult photos and went offline in the aftermath of the hack. The scenario of attacks reminds the 2015 Ashley Madison case that exposed 36 million cheaters’ information. According to the independent researcher Troy Hunt, who examined the incident, “Wife Lovers acknowledged the breach, which impacted names, usernames, email and IP addresses and passwords.” Experts conducted a web research with the use of some of the private email addresses associated with the compromised profiles and “quickly returned accounts on Instagram, Amazon and other big sites that gave the users’ first and last names, geographic location, and information about hobbies, family members and other personal details,” which means that the risk to victims in these breaches is very high.
A giant data loss is revealed
by Insurance Journal – 26 October 2018
Another cyber incident exploded the Interned that was also called the world’s biggest airline data breach. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. s confirmed that a hacker accessed personal information of 9.4 million customers. “This is quite shocking,” commented Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consulting firm Endau Analytics in Malaysia. “It’s probably the biggest breach of information in the aviation sector.” Among the stolen information, there were names, nationalities, dates of birth, telephone numbers, email, physical addresses, numbers for passports, identity cards and frequent-flier programs, and historical travel information, 403 expired credit card numbers, 27 credit numbers with no CVV, or a security code, some 860,000 passport numbers and 245,000 Hong Kong IDs.
Several lawmakers criticized Cathay for taking so long to publish the details of the breach. Lam Cheuk-ting from the Legislative Council’s security committee said that many people in Hong Kong were angry as the airline should’ve taken the initiative the very first day it found out. Cathay’s Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Paul Loo replied that the airline didn’t want to “create unnecessary panic.”
Healthcare is targeted again
by SC Media – 22 October 2018
Healthcare sector is one of the most beloved by attackers and therefore vulnerable in comparison with other spheres of activity. And last month, the data of 75,000 patients was exposed after a breach at ObamaCare (Affordable Care Act) enrollment portal; the details of the incident came to light only last week. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid learned about the incident after noticing problems in the online enrollment portal available to agents and brokers October 13; the ACA public healthcare portal was not affected. Experts say that information including Social Security numbers, income, and citizenship or immigration status may have been accessed. Federal authorities now are conducting an investigation: the breach took place just two weeks before the beginning of the annual six-week enrollment period for health coverage although Seema Verma, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; the agency’s response to the incident has been criticized by researchers. Pravin Kothari, chief executive officer of CipherCloud once again stressed that healthcare remains a popular target for malefactors. “The reason? Healthcare records provide the most comprehensive data set available for any individual. Stolen healthcare data facilitates identity theft and for this reason, is highly prized by cyber thieves,”Kothari commented.
Mexico’s central bank raised security level
by Reuiters – 24 October 2018
Another vulnerable sector is financial field that always has attracted attackers. Last Tuesday, Mexico’s central bank announced that the security alert level in its payment system had been raised after “inconsistencies” in the cash payment matching system being reported by a non-banking financial user.
Insurer AXA reported a cyber attack on Monday that prompted the central bank alert. Still, clients’ information and resources were safe and had not been affected. Some institutions would be operating via an alternative mechanism until further notice as a precautionary measure without providing details. Earlier in May, the central bank said a cyber attack had tapped into payment system connections at five entities, as a result of which around 300 million pesos were lost.
No doubt, healthcare and financial institutions are all-time hackers’ favorites while speaking about the most attacked spheres. But, as you see, some attackers are more into adult sites. To learn about future attacks, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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