Anatomy of the Hack (1)

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Rowan College of South Jersey, Sewell *

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CS101.ONL.

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Information Systems

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Feb 20, 2024

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Anatomy of the Hack Select a RECENT (less than 12-18 months old) hacking incident where a large, well established company suffered an electronic hack/breach. Note your grade is based on the number of questions answered / addresses – picking a suitable hack, where information is available is essential to a good grade. The example you should select should have enough information available for you to answer (factually) the following questions: 1) Provide background on the company and the nature of the hack/breach. Yahoo (Yahoo.com), is a web service provider that generally offers both a search engine and a directory of World Wide Web pages organized through thousands of topic categories. Although, started as a portal, this device added other elements such as email, news and finance in the future. Yahoo has had two severe data breaches during its credible history. In their first data breach, this hack affected 500 million users and in the second, impacted 1 billion users. Then, it was admitted that all 3 billion users were affected. The mass volume of data significantly stolen was insanely large. Hackers stole names, email addresses, phone numbers, security questions and answers, birthdays, and passwords. Soon it was discovered that web cookies were used to falsify login credentials and gain easier access to user accounts. 2) How was the breach accomplished (technical explanation of the methods used)? This breach initially began with a spear-phishing email sent in early 2014 to a Yahoo company employee (it is still unclear how many employees were targeted). Aleksey Belan, a Latvian hacker, hired by Russian agents, commenced by searching around the network, looking for two valuable prizes: Yahoo’s user database and the Account Management Tool (used to edit their database). After finding them, the hacker installed a backdoor on the Yahoo server that would allow him access, and in December Adan 1

he stole a backup copy of Yahoo’s user database and transferred them onto his own computer. Once the accounts have been attained, the hackers were able to utilize the stolen values to further generate access cookies through a script that had been downloaded on a Yahoo server. With these cookies, this gave the hackers easier yet free access to a user’s email account without the password. 3) What was the goal of the hack/breach? (ethical hacking, data for profit, economic disruption, general fun). The goal of this breach was mainly ethical hacking. 4) What was done to prevent hacks/breaches? (prior to this one) There are an abundance of third party email filtering services that use artificial intelligence, data banks and algorithms to further determine whether an email is verified or not. In the slightest, Yahoo could have its own configured email filters but is not possibly sophisticated enough within the technological market. Thousands of credentials have been compromised. A single set of credentials and roles having a wide set of permissions in allowing further access to unnecessary services. Yahoo did not report these breaches, until 2016. Huge amounts of data could have been easily protected by communicating to their user base and asking for simpler password resets. With easier communication, this would have allowed for a much coordinated effort with such higher security and government officials to limit breaches following a well-defined incident response plan. 5) What data was compromised? a) Type of data: At least 500 million user accounts have been exposed. Several phone numbers, email addresses, names, dates of birth, hashed passwords, and in other cases encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. 6) How many impacted customers? Over 500 million user accounts have been exposed. 7) What are the potential impacts of the hack/breach on the impacted customers? Yahoo officially started notifying affected users and has taken precaution to help further secure their accounts. This includes invalidating unencrypted security questions and Adan 1

answers, so they cannot be used to access an account and certainly asking affected users to change their passwords. 8) What was the company’s immediate “public” reaction to the event? What is your opinion of their reaction? According to some experts, their reaction to this case was ‘too little, too late’. Yahoo should be more proactive in implementing higher security. I feel like, as one of the biggest companies, we failed to protect our consumers. There were several unanswered questions about what went down, and why didn’t the company report the incident earlier. 9) What was the media’s reaction to the event? What is your opinion of their reaction? Several companies, in this industry, are now taking higher steps in order to strengthen their security measures. Many are implementing newer technologies such as cloud-based cyber security, big data analytics, and advanced authentication. In such a big industry, I feel like the media’s reaction was smarter than Yahoo’s initial public response. 10) How was consumer behavior impacted or changed by the hack/breach? The company as a whole, their future does not seem completely bright. With Yahoo account users, there are several unanswered questions remaining about these breaches. Investigations from the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission may still bring unknown information to light. 11) What did the company do in the wake of the event to prevent future hacks/breaches? In order to protect yourself from hackers, your password should never be something as simple as a row of numbers. Passwords should be strong and unique. Some Yahoo users were particularly vulnerable enough to do their password practices. 12) How would you have reacted differently as: a) the company - if i was the company, i would have sat down with the head of yahoo, discuss several steps to take higher precautions. b) the hacker - if i was the hacker, i would have never hacked such a big platform as yahoo, considering some family members use this networking site. What if my family’s information gets stolen? c) the customer - if i was the customer, i use yahoo for news or reading emails. I would be considering switching to a better website. Adan 1

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d) the media - if i was the media, i would release much needed information with precise wordings for people to have a better understanding of what’s been happening. Adan 1