The IT Nerd

It appears that US insurer GEICO has become the latest victim of the MOVEit Flaw and that this might be bad. WKBW has the details:

A Geico spokesperson confirmed with 7 News that MOVEit, an outside software program that Geico uses to transfer data to third-party vendors, was involved in a data breach. MOVEit told 7 News that the company disclosed the vulnerability on May 31, and deployed a patch the same day.

However, employees and former employees feel that they are under threat:

Heather Dudziak said she worked for Geico and left the job about a month ago. She claims her information was hacked because the company has put cyber security on the back burner.”My information, my daughter’s information, my husband’s information and my step-father’s information was leaked due to this data breach,” Dudziak said. 

She said her social security number and her family’s social security number were shared with the company for her health insurance which she believes was then obtained by hackers. She added that her former co-workers have told her others are experiencing the same thing.

“This is a violation of not only my security, my daughter, my husband, my stepdaughters and I just don’t feel safe,” she added. 

That’s extremely bad. Damir J. Brescic, CISO, Inversion6 had this to say:

I would like to know what steps GEICO has taken to bolster their cybersecurity posture due to this incident.

A few thoughts pop to mind of what they could have done; starting with ensuring that MOVEit was regularly updated with the latest security patches and fixes.  They should have implemented a robust access control and authentication mechanism within MOVEit to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.  I am also a big fan of two-factor authentication, strong password policies, and role-based access control as effective ways to restrict access to authorized personnel only.

This incident serves as a reminder to customers to do their own due diligence, by considering several factors.  They should understand the potential risks involved and take steps to protect their own person information, such as using strong and unique passwords and enabling two-factor authentication whenever possible.  Regular monitoring of financial statements and credit reports can also help detect any suspicious activities that may result from a data breach.

MOVEit is going to continue to claim victims until companies who use MOVEit take whatever steps are required to ensure that their attack surface is as small as possible. Then they should go to every vendor, supplier, etc. and ensure that they are doing the same thing. Because as is the case here, these attacks don’t just affect companies, they affect people too.

This week in regulatory filings with the SEC, Clorox reported a cybersecurity incident that forced it to take several systems offline and is causing disruption to parts of the business’s operations.

“To the extent possible, and in line with its business continuity plans, Clorox has implemented workarounds for certain offline operations in order to continue servicing its customers,” the company said in an 8-K filing.

Clorox noted in its 10-k report that it has seen an increase in the number of cyber attacks since shifting to a hybrid remote work model, and while they are in the process of a multi-year technology upgrade, including transitioning to a cloud-based platform,:  

“The upgrade poses several challenges, including training of personnel, migration of data and the potential instability of the new system.

“[Clorox] may be vulnerable to increased risks, including the risk of security breaches, system failures and disruptions.”

Ted Miracco, CEO, Approov Mobile Security had this comment:  

“Clorox and many other companies are being adversely affected by a one two punch of a shift to remote work and the concurrent reliance on personal mobile devices. This dynamic has dangerously expanded the attack surface for cyber threats, especially business email compromise, cyber extortion, phishing, and other social engineering attacks.  

“Organizations must urgently prioritize protections for this new perimeter, and it is especially important to focus on remote workers whom may be using personal devices that are not as secure as company-issued devices.”

Steve Hahn, Executive VP, BullWall follows with this comment:   

“As Clorox indicated in their company 10K filings, cyber attacks have escalated in the last few years due to their new “hybrid” work from home model. Like many companies, this work model expands the attack surface and makes the job of securing the endpoints nearly impossible. Broadly speaking, we’ve seen a huge uptick as a result of increased efforts by threat actors who now have vastly more attack vectors to take advantage of.  

“It doesn’t seem to matter how good a company’s preventative posture is, with a determined threat actor it’s a matter of “when” not “if” the attackers are successful. Because of this companies need to adopt a post breach mentality that looks to respond and recover in milliseconds by containing the attack, and not just focusing on prevention.”

With hybrid work here to stay, companies have to think differently about how they secure themselves. And as evidenced by this case, make every effort to make sure that either the bad guys don’t get in, or they are forced out as quickly as possible.