With the advancement of technologies, IT applications are used by several users at their workplaces. The use of computer systems, internet, online databases and smart phones has become so common. These techniques provide various benefits to its users but some issues of security and privacy are encountered that are known as computer security breaches. There are several news and articles available on internet regarding security breaches and popular hack cases. Now in this report, we will emphasize on a news of computer security breach occurred in 2015 and a popular hack case that happened between 2012 and 2016.
The selected news of computer security breach is Apple Account Information stolen by iPhone Hackers.
Apple Inc. is a famous multi-national company among people worldwide. Its business products such as iPhone, iPad and others are highly preferred to use by smart phone users. It is ranked as one of the most promising companies in America that makes the technology giants a main target for hackers. The incident of information hacked from Apple’s accounts was happened in September, 2015.
In this incident of information breach, more than 225,000 iPhone users have had their Apple account information that they compromised by malware. This malware was nicknamed KeyRaider. In this attack hackers have targeted those individuals who have been using “jailbroken” iPhones (IdentityForce®, 2017).
This security breach of Apple Account Information has carried out by hackers through malware attack. KeyRaider malware has taken sensitive information from iPhones that includes Apple ID of an individual, password, Unique ID of iPhone and information regarding App store purchases and sends it back to the attacker. Once this attack takes place, the owners of iPhones are not able to recover their iPhones (Hooper, 2017). It is also happened that phones of some owners have locked along with an exchange or ransom demand from hackers that owner will get access of phone again once he/she will pay to hacker. The information of Apple’s Account on iPhone was not only stolen for personal use of hackers, but they also created a software that allows anyone to access the credentials of the victims. They use this information to download iTunes app free of cost (Redmond Channel Partner, 2017). According to report of CNN Money Reports, approximately 20,000 people have downloaded this software.
The above discussed breach was a malware attack. Hackers used malware to access information of iPhone’s Account. Therefore to resolve this problem, it is necessary to know that how malware attack can be controlled. Following are some possible solutions for Apple’s Information Breach.
In above case of information breach, hackers use malware KeyRaider for accessing information of iPhone users. But it could have been controlled if users were used above listed security tools into their iPhones. Besides this, it is responsibility of Apple to be prepare to control this type of information breaches immediately. After this incident, Apple suggested to iPhone users to be keep their phones more protected by using important security parameters and tools that are available on Apple’s website. Apple did all potential efforts to control this big problem of information breach and provide surety to customers that everything will be normal soon.
The popular case of hacking that was happened between 2012 and 2016 was Sony Hacking Incident that was happened in 2014.
It is found by employees of Sony Company that their computers were hijacked by the image of red skeleton with the words “Hacked by #GOP”. After few weeks, the personal information of employees including their salary information and email exchanges were seen public online. During investigation of this case, it was found that this hacking attack is conducted by cybercriminals of North Korea. This hacking case of Sony is considered most popular hacking case of 2014. The group of hackers called itself GOP i.e. Guardians of Peace. Besides hacking of salary and personal information of employees, hackers also stole Sony pictures and leaving network of Sony crippled for days (Riskbasedsecurity.com, 2017).
Due to this attack, the most affected individuals were employees of Sony Company and company itself. Hackers hacked past and present records of approximately 4000 employees of Sony. This information was not only used by hackers but also shared online. This was very bad for company’s reputation and customers’ trust on Sony (Wired.com, 2017). The GOP hackers made public their contact information for a brief period of time and researchers of RBS used this opportunity to contact with that group by sending and receiving messages. The provided link in that contact information was not so much useful. After analyzing further, the leaked data summary is found that includes 33,880 files, 4864 folders, 47426 unique social security numbers and 3253 SSN appeared more than 100 times. This is essential information of Sony Company that was leaked by hackers (Huffingtonpost.com, 2017).
The attack was carried out by accessing database of Sony by hackers in which sensitive information about employees, their salaries and exchanging information by them, were stored. After investigating about this hacking case of Sony, it is not cleared yet, how this attack was carried out. It is estimated that most of the hacks like this starts from phishing attack that involves emails sending to employees with malicious attachments, so they click on it and hackers can access their information (MakeUseOf, 2017). Besides this, a link of a website can also be attached with emails so that the employees click on it and malware downloaded automatically into their systems. Hackers use these harmful scripts or programs just to access information of users from their systems (Hacked: Hacking Finance, 2017). Once company’s system becomes infected, hackers can map the network and can steal required information such as administrative passwords to gain access of other systems over network to steal confidential data (HackRead, 2017). After conducting this attack, next day hackers show the similar sensitive information over internet that they stole to map and access Sony’s internal networks. Most of the important documents and files are stolen under this hacking attack that include list of routers, switches, load balancers, usernames and passwords. Therefore, it was really a big and vulnerable hacking attack that badly influenced Sony. In this hacking attack, near about 100 terabytes of data of Sony Company has stolen and it was slowly releasing on internet in batches. On the behalf of this discussion, we can estimate that hacking cases are so brutal and vulnerable for anyone or any company. A huge amount of important data can be leaked or damaged in few minutes due to hacking attacks. This hack of information was so shameful and embarrassing for Sony. There is one question regarding stolen data that is not yet cleared that was data destroyed or just stolen. According to FBI flash alert, attack on Sony might have included malware to destroy data on its systems and malware is capable to wiping data from systems in an effective way that data is unrecoverable. So it can be said that data has destroyed from Sony systems after stealing whole data. In this way, Sony was influenced by this vulnerable hacking attack that was difficult to control by company for many years.
Sony did all potential efforts to get prevention from this attack. But the effect of the attack was so vulnerable. But still, there are some basic possible solutions that could have been implemented by Sony to prevent phishing attack. Those possible solutions are listed as below:
In this way, by implementing above listed solutions, Sony could have prevent its database and computer systems from hackers.
Conclusion
At last we conclude that to control above types of vulnerable attacks of hacking and computer security breaches, it is necessary to be used security tools from very early stage of using IT technologies. If companies will be careful about security and privacy of their computer systems and networks from its initial stages then it is possible that harmful phishing and hacking attacks can be controlled easily.
References
Blog.tcitechs.com. (2017). The Most Controversial Hacking Cases of 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://blog.tcitechs.com/blog/the-most-controversial-hacking-cases-of-2015
Databreachtoday.in. (2017). Latest breaking news articles on data security breach. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://www.databreachtoday.in/news
Greene, T. (2017). Biggest data breaches of 2015. Network World. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://www.networkworld.com/article/3011103/security/biggest-data-breaches-of-2015.html
Hooper, C. (2017). Ten Ways to Prevent Viruses and Malware – TopTenREVIEWS. Top Ten Reviews. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://www.toptenreviews.com/software/security/best-antivirus-software/ten-ways-to-prevent-viruses-and-malware.html
HackRead. (2017). Top 15 Cyber Attacks and Security Breaches in 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2017, from https://www.hackread.com/top-15-cyber-attacks-security-breaches-in-2015/
Healthcare IT News. (2017). 7 largest data breaches of 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2017, from https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/7-largest-data-breaches-2015
Huffingtonpost.com. (2017). Security Breach. Retrieved 6 April 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/security-breach/
Hacked: Hacking Finance. (2017). 10 Most Notorious Hackers of All Time | Hacked: Hacking Finance. Retrieved 6 April 2017, from https://hacked.com/hackers/
IdentityForce®.(2017). September 2015 iPhone Hack. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://www.identityforce.com/blog/apple-account-information-stolen-by-iphone-hackers
MakeUseOf. (2017). 5 Of The World’s Most Famous Hackers & What Happened To Them. Retrieved 6 April 2017, from https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-of-the-worlds-most-famous-hackers-what-happened-to-them/
Redmond Channel Partner. (2017). 2015 Security Review: Top Hacks, Breaches and Cyber Scams — Redmond Channel Partner. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://rcpmag.com/articles/2015/12/01/top-security-hacks.aspx
Riskbasedsecurity.com. (2017). A Breakdown and Analysis of the December, 2014 Sony Hack. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/2014/12/a-breakdown-and-analysis-of-the-december-2014-sony-hack/
SearchSecurity. (2017). What is data breach? – Definition from WhatIs.com. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/data-breach
Wired.com. (2017). Sony Got Hacked Hard: What We Know and Don’t Know So Far. Retrieved 8 April 2017, from https://www.wired.com/2014/12/sony-hack-what-we-know/
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download