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Target Attack Case Study

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How was target attacked?
Target gave access to third party retailer Fazio Mechanical services to access its network but did not take measures to properly secure that access to the systems handling sensitive data. They did not follow proper network segmentation to protect cardholder data.
Hackers compromised the third party vendor Fazio Mechanical Services which is refrigeration contractor works for target at many locations. Hackers sent phishing email containing malware to one of the employees of Fazio, which allowed citadel which is password stealing bot program to be installed on the computer. They stole the login credentials which was the first step to access the target network. Fazio Mechanical Services did not had appropriate …show more content…
They tried the software on small number of cash registers, after determining that it was working well, they uploaded the software into majority of POS systems at target. The software collected the credit card information as cards were swiped. The data was saved in .dll file and stored in temporary NetBios share over ports. The hackers communicated using ICMP tunnel. FTP was used to move data to drop locations on hackers servers all over the world. Hackers can retrieve data from drop locations. The monitoring software had alerted the staff in bangalore, India while the attack was in progress. The target staff at mineapolis was informed but no action was taken. The cards were sold on black market.

2. What was Target’s response? (Changes in personnel, security, etc)
The breach had tremendous effect on Target including the changes in administration and security.
Target got the attack mitigated with the help of third party forensic team.
They announced a 10 percent discount the weekend before christmas and free credit monitoring for effected customers for one year.
They informed that they would be spending $ 100 million dollars for implementing advanced registers and technology which is called CHIP and PIN to process new safer cards.
Target overhauled its security system to identify internal and external risk to shoppers info. The company also worked on providing additional training to employees to keep the customers

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