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Berkeley Hack Unnoticed For Six Months
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2009-05-11
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It's embarrassing enough for an institution when its databases are hacked and trusting clientele have their information accessed by an anonymous third party. It's doubly embarrassing when it's discovered an institution's databases were wide open for six months.
 | | Berkeley Hack Unnoticed For Six Months |  |
The University of California at Berkeley discovered its healthcare database containing the medical records and social security numbers of up to 160,000 students was breached in April. But at that point, the records had been open to hackers since October of last year.
Affecting students as far back as 1999, the university is now embarking on the costly endeavor of identifying and alerting those whose data was compromised. Though it is unclear if the medical information would have any value, the social security numbers certainly would.
The length of time it took network administrators to discover the breach likely means there was no active monitoring system in place, according to security experts. Other, like Faizel Lakhani, VP of Network DLP at McAfee, suggest lack of mandated security protocols is the main culprit.
"Technology exists to protect data but the use of these tools is spotty because of the bet organizations are making that ‘it won't happen to me'," said Lakhani. "Just like car insurance is mandatory to drive a car data loss prevention tools should be mandatory for every organization."
It may come as a surprise to many that Berkeley, with a reputation for producing high-tech, high-profile graduates, would have been so vulnerable to an attack and would have had no mechanism in place to detect a breach in a timely fashion. Famous Berkeley alumni include Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, computer mouse inventor Douglas Engelbart, and MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson.
One imagines what kind of mischief one could achieve with access to those social security numbers. Fortunately for them, all graduated before 1999; Olympic gold medallist Natalie Coughlin, who graduated in 2005, and the '99 alumnus and Crown Prince of Norway, Haakon Magnus, if ever they visited university health services, may not have been so lucky.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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