...Dr. Yen-Hung (Frank) Hu Topic: Target Security Breach Case Study Abstract This paper identifies the issues that cause the Target’s security breach, its also discusses the events that lead to the breach, identifies potential causes of this events, who was affected and how consumers reacted, the extent of the breach, and provide ways to address this events in addition to addressing risk management and data recovery for future occurrence. An Overview of the Breach In the days prior to Thanksgiving 2013, a malware was installed, on Target’s security and payment system, designed to steal credit cards that comes across the system. This malware targeted all the 1,797 stores own by target in the United States. The malware was coded, to pick up credit cards that were swiped at the register and stored on a server controlled by the hackers. Federal enforcement officials contacted Target on December 12, to alert them of the breach, target responded in three days to confirm the breach, Target reported about 40 million credit cards were stolen, about 70 million of personal records were also stolen. Events Leading to Breach Businessweek reports that hackers used the credentials of an HVAC vendor to get into Targets network, and spent several weeks installing the malware. hackers then sent the malware to the 1,797 stores owned by Target and got them installed on cashier stations, the malicious codes, will then send credit/debit card information to servers controlled...
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... Date: Re: Target Security Breach Target Credit Card Information Security Breach According to corporate.target.com, Target released message to their card holders on December 19, 2013("A Message From Ceo Gregg Steinhafel About Target’s Payment Card Issues", 2014). Target explains there was unauthorized access to their payment data. Guests who made purchases in their stores between Nov. 27th – Dec. 15th 2013 may be at risk. Target let their customers know that the information breach included customer name, credit or debit card number, and the expiration date and CVV code on the back. Target made this a top priority for their customers and to ensure they didn’t lose any customers, they hired a third-party forensics firm to investigate the crime and help with any additional crimes similar to this that might happen in the future. Target did all they could to inform all the authorities and financial institutions as soon as they heard about the issue. Target now offers credit monitoring on all accounts that may have been tampered with. They really tried to ensure the clients felt safe while shopping there, and went out of their way to prove to customers that they had their best interest in mind. The CEO of the company, Gregg Steinhafel, even released a personal letter to the “guests” explaining the situation and the steps Target has taken to ensure this does not happen again ("A Message From Ceo Gregg Steinhafel About Target’s Payment Card Issues", 2014). [pic] ...
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...OF TARGET 1 The Breaching of Target: What Happened and How It Could Have Been Prevented THE BREACHING OF TARGET 2 The Breaching of Target: What Happened and How It Could Have Been Prevented In December of 2014, hackers infiltrated Target’s credit card system. These hackers obtained over 40 million customer’s credit card information along with 70 million customer’s personal information. What should have been Target’s most profitable season, actually turned into its worst. They lost many loyal customers while obtaining numerous lawsuits. Before this catastrophe, Target was known for being an extremely technologically advanced and secure corporation. This is why many customers are left wondering what happened and how it could have been prevented. The hackers that breached Target’s system supposedly used a piece of software called BlackPOS (Monocello, 2014). This piece of malware obtained its information from the black magnetic stripe on the back of each credit card as it was swiped. Stores use a POS system to swipe credit cards. This is how they obtain required information. However, the information does not come encrypted, so it is easy information for an advanced hacker to receive. A simple way to encrypt this information is by using an EMV chip and EMV chip reader. According to Rash (2013), “The EMV chip that's embedded in my credit card is...
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...Research Paper Target Security Breach Abstract In late 2013 Target Corporation’s network encountered a security breach in which millions of credit cards and customer personal information was stolen by malware that was installed onto their network. This information was to be sold on the black market to others for their illegal use. Target Corporation was indeed made aware that there was some peculiar activity within the network before the information was stolen. Their million dollar malware software, monitored by FireEye, picked up on the attack several days before any information was removed from the Target Corporation servers. Target Corporation could have easily prevented the majority of the attack and reduced if not eliminated the amount of credit cards and personal information that was stolen. The fact that Target Corporation was warned of the initial breach, as well as an additional breach, and did not respond for two weeks is unfathomable and unethical. The Target Corporation has a duty to secure any and all credit card and personal information that they collect from their customers. I believe that in this case Target Corporation did not act accordingly and should be held liable. Target Corporations lack of response and inability to take action goes against all ethics and how the situation should have been handled. Target Security Breach In mid 2013 Target Corporation hired a security firm, FireEye, to install a malware...
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...The article, Hackers Steal Card Data from Neiman Marcus, was written in an attempt to inform readers of the incident regarding a data breach attack that occurred at Neiman Marcus, the high end brick and mortar retail store, which was detected in mid-December. In response to inquiries about a data breach which involved consumer’s payment card information, Neiman Marcus acknowledged that it is working with the United States Secret Service to investigate a breach that has exposed an unidentified number of customers (Krebs, 2014). Krebs’ Sources from the financial industry reported that there have recently been a rising number of fraudulent payment card charges that were occurring at numerous stores; however the common point of purchase for the fraudulent activity was at Neiman Marcus. The author then proceeded to contact Neiman Marcus, seeking conformation of if there was a breach or not. Ginger Reeder, Spokesperson for Neiman Marcus, explained that a lot of the information on the breach is unknown, because the forensics team that was hired has not completed their investigation on the breach; however she mentioned that there is no evidence that online customers were also affected by the data breach. Eventually Neiman Marcus released a formal disclosure which notified clients that the company was contacted by its credit card processor to notify the, that there was a possibility of fraudulent payment card activity that occurred subsequent to client purchases at their stores. Neiman...
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...February 26, 2015 IT Failure- Target Breach IT failures have become more and more prevalent these past few years, or at least now that they’re publicized more often since they are now associated with our personal information. Before we heard about breaches and hacking, we would think of IT failures in a different sense such as a stores system not working properly or even their website not responding. We are often reminded that we are lazy creatures and with that we tend to think about how to make are lives simpler not safer. When we stand in line at the store we never stop to think about how secure our purchases are while using our debit/credit cards. Well that’s not the case now, in late November of 2013 that all changed for us. Target experienced one of the largest retail breach back in 2013 when it was discovered that there was malware found in their systems from a third party affiliate (Riley, Elgin, Lawrence, and Matlack, 2014). The breach occurred between the days of November 27th and December 15th (“Data Breach FAQ,” 2015). Meaning this massive breach went on for a total of 19 days, which leads to the question: How could Target allow this to go on for over two weeks without noticing? This was a very well thought out attack because it was one of the busiest seasons of the year, catching Target off-guard. Despite the fact that, it was such a busy time, it does not excuse the fact that Target made a tremendous error. Prior to this nightmare, Target had invested $1.6 million...
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...Target Data Breach What exactly happen? Over 40 million credit cards and debit cards that were swiped at a US Target store may have been exposed. The stolen data includes customers’ names, credit card debit card numbers, expiration date and the security code. What was the impact from this happening? The Impact from the data breach was customer information was stolen and card numbers. What was the monetary loss? Each cards that was stolen was taken 18-37 dollars out of each card stolen. Target lost 46 percent in profit after the data breach. Target will spend 200 million on costs of to credit unions and banks for reissuing 21.8 million card to customers. The hackers stole 53.7 million us dollars for the cards stolen. According to Target it will spend 100 million upgrading their payment terminals to support chip and pin enabled card. What was the negative publicity? The negative publicity is Target customers lost their trust to target and didn’t feel safe going back to shop at Target. There has been over 90 lawsuits against Target since the data breach last year from customers and banks for negligence and compensatory damages. How did it happen? A few days before thanksgiving a hacker installed malware in Targets security and payment system designed to steal every credit card used at any US stores. Event time the customer swiped the card it would capture the numbers and stored it on a Target server commandeered by the hackers. Six months earlier the company...
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...Target Security Breach COM/295 May 17, 2015 Target Security Breach During the 2013 holiday season, hackers infiltrated Targets computer network. With nothing but the wrong doing in their plans, the hackers were able to breach the mainframe and install a malware system that would allow them access to everyone that purchased at Target. Riley (2014) states, the malware, would step in, capture the shopper's credit card number, and store it on a Target server commandeered by the hackers. Target's ethical obligation was to try and investigate all damages caused by the breach to their mainframe. Unfortunately, it seems they were more preoccupied with supplying the public with research on internal procedures as oppose to admitting their failure to respond expeditiously. FireEye (FEYE) which is a fail-safe, was put in place for Targets security system. FEye would inform Bangalore (security specialists for Targets security system in Minneapolis), and Bangalore alerted the corporate team. Nothing was done to avoid the disaster that would be (Riley, 2014). Sadly we'll never get to the bottom of why the flags were ignored in the first place. CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, was interviewed by a CNBC reporter regarding the data breach mishap. The interview took place practically one month after the incident occurred. In my opinion, the interview was useless and unrevealing. "At best, Steinhafel offered a partial explanation of...
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...Reading Room site. Reposting is not permitted without express written permission. Case Study: Critical Controls that Could Have Prevented Target Breach 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 and consider some of the Critical Controls that could have been used to both prevent this breach and mitigate losses. AD Copyright SANS Institute Author Retains Full Rights Case Study: Critical Controls that Could Have Prevented Target Breach GIAC (GSEC) Gold Certification Author: Teri Radichel, teri@radicalsoftware.com Advisor: Stephen Northcutt Accepted: August 5th 2014 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 and consider some of the Critical Controls that could have been used to both prevent this breach and mitigate losses. 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 defense in depth model will be presented using a multi-layered...
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...What exactly happen? Over 40 million credit cards and debit cards that were swiped at a US Target store may have been exposed. The stolen data includes customers’ names, credit card debit card numbers, expiration date and the security code. What was the impact from this happening? The Impact from the data breach was customer information was stolen and card numbers. What was the monetary loss? Each cards that was stolen was taken 18-37 dollars out of each card stolen. Target lost 46 percent in profit after the data breach. Target will spend 200 million on costs of to credit unions and banks for reissuing 21.8 million card to customers. The hackers stole 53.7 million us dollars for the cards stolen. According to Target it will spend 100 million upgrading their payment terminals to support chip and pin enabled card. What was the negative publicity? The negative publicity is Target customers lost their trust to target and didn’t feel safe going back to shop at Target. There has been over 90 lawsuits against Target since the data breach last year from customers and banks for negligence and compensatory damages. How did it happen? A few days before thanksgiving a hacker installed malware in Targets security and payment system designed to steal every credit card used at any US stores. Event time the customer swiped the card it would capture the numbers and stored it on a Target server commandeered by the hackers. Six months earlier the company began installing a $1.6...
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...security breach at Target and how this adversely affected the organization. Be sure to include and indicate both tangible and intangible losses in preparing your response. Nature of Breach | Tangible Losses | Intangible Losses | Customer names | Consumer information | Consumer trust | Credit card numbers | Previously stored credit cards | Consumer trust | Credit card security numbers | Security numbers of credit cards | Consumer trust | Credit card expiry dates | Credit card info | Consumer trust | Customer addresses | Addresses | Consumer Trust | Sales data | Sales data | Sense of security | 2. What actions were taken by both Target and the “authorities” to address the crisis, and what is your assessment of each action taken? Actions Taken to Address the Crisis | Assessment of These Steps | Target ignores warnings | Not a great move | Department of Justice notifies stolen data existence | Good move, shouldn’t have gotten to this | Target removes malware from POS | Good move, should’ve done this sooner | | | add more rows as needed…. | | 3. What reactive steps by Target might have mitigated their losses subsequent to their discovery of the information security breach? Explain/justify your choices. Reactive Steps | Explanation | Respond to the warning signs exhibited by installed security software | Why would you invest in this security only to ignore it? | Follow procedures put in place to address a security breach | Why...
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...enterprise architecture in the industry will also be discussed and how it contributes to management decision making. Different data storage options for the industry will be discussed alone with the functions and which provides the best possible support for the industry overall. Cyber Security in Business Organizations 3 Due to the increased use of information and communication technologies in business organizations to today, the incidents of computer abuse has increase exponential. It has become increasingly difficult to protect customer information and company asset. Some of the challenges in security business organization have when it comes to breach includes the following: unauthorized users get access to computer systems and disclose confidential information, unauthorized users change the information held in computer and server systems, unauthorized users copy information that resides in a computer system or while the data is in transmission mode. “Herley In many forms of non-financial cybercrime the attacker succeed once he gains access. Often getting the celebrity’s password, control of the Webserver, or the file of customer records is the end; once he is in he is done. A few...
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...Case Study 1: Cyber Security in Business Organizations Abstract This paper examines the importance of cyber security in business organizations and discovering better methods to combat cyber terrorism in the future. Data breaches in the work place have become an increased threat to personal privacy as well as to the economic livelihood of many organizations. In this paper we will further examine how a simple data breach almost brought the retail giant Target to the brink of destruction and provide detailed accounts of other recent data security breaches that have effected other business organizations and discuss what could be done to prevent them. Cyber Security in Business Organizations Modern global industries rely heavily on the data that they acquire to stay relevant in order to compete in a constantly moving world of technology. Protecting present and future data from potential cyber theft has become a vital need to the economic livelihood of today’s organizations. In today’s business world, organizations must prepare themselves for not only increased vulnerability attacks from exterior threats of cyber terrorist seeking to gain access to a company’s private data and resources but also have to take in account and be mindful of the interior threat of disgruntled employees whose mission is to expose or sale company sensitive or secret data for their own profitable gain. In today’s era of computing, cyber security can be described and defined in several ways...
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...MIS 671 CASE STUDY 2 AN INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY BREACH AT FIRST FREEDOM CREDIT UNION Introduction The case is about an information system security breach at First Freedom Credit Union, a financial institution in the Southern part of the United States. First Choice Credit Union (FFCU has seven branches located throughout the metropolitan area. One branch is located at the FFFCU headquarters. Most employees at the FFCU has at least 5 years of service. The credit card information of 200,000 members has been stolen. This is highly sensitive information and it puts the members at critical risk. The security breach might cause loss of finances and other disturbances. Frank Sanders, the CEO of FFCU called a conference with all the executives of the FFCU. The nature of the conference was to discuss a security breach. A security breach that affected card member credit card numbers and personal information. Frank was uncertain if the breach had affected all members’ information or a portion. However, Frank was aware that fraudulent activity had already taken place on some accounts. Due to the fraudulent activity that had transpired Frank had canceled all current credit cards and was sending out replacement cards. Jaime O’ Dell, the chief information officer (CIO) was appalled because nothing had ever happened like this since his tenure with the company. Jaime felt the firewall being used was the top of the line, virus protested was updated daily and an intrusion detection...
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...Cyber Attacks and Security: The Problem and The Solution Shamika A. Woumnm BIS/221 February 16, 2015 Gregorio Chavarria Cyber Attacks and Security: The Problem and The Solution In December of 2013, Target reported that up to 70 million customers worldwide were affected by a major security breach. It was reported that thieves stole massive amounts of credit and debit card information during the holiday season which also swept up names, addresses and phone numbers of their customers, information that could put victims at greater risk for identity theft. The Problem The Target breach is ranked as one of the worst ever. During the peak of the holiday season that year Target said that up to 40 million customers’ credit/debit card information had been stolen from people who shopped in their stores from November 27 to December 15. That following Friday that’s when another 70 million customers were affected, some of who, might have had their personal information compromised as well. Cyber criminals gained access to the computers entity and steered the information to a server in Eastern Europe to eventually sell on the black market card. According to the press, there when the two automatic intrutions alerts and installations of malware took place within the software and computer systems they were neither detected nor identified by the company. When there are security breach’s within a company it has a major effect on the company’s revenue...
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