nir Posted November 12, 2018 Share Posted November 12, 2018 Initial 'suspicious activity' was full-scale data theft, it tells local lawmakers Fresh from belatedly admitting that 9.4 million passengers’ personal data was stolen by hackers, Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific has now admitted that it was under attack for three solid months before it took half a year to tell anyone. In its initial public statement on the hack, which saw names, nationalities, dates of birth, addresses, some people’s passport numbers, email addresses and more heading from its secure servers into the hands of as-yet unidentified miscreants, Cathay said it had detected “suspicious activity” beginning in March 2018. In a submission made by the airline to Hong Kong’s Legco (its Legislative Council; broadly, the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s equivalent of Parliament) reveals (PDF, 4 pages), ahead of a Wednesday hearing, Cathay said it knew that in March the “suspicious activity” was a full-scale attack on its servers. “During this phase of the investigation, Cathay was subject to further attacks which were at their most intense in March, April and May but continued thereafter. These ongoing attacks meant that internal and external IT security resources had to remain focused on containment and prevention,” said the airline in its written submission to local legislators. Cathay has come under fire from various parties for waiting six months before telling the victims that their data had been illegally copied from the airline’s servers. The type of data stolen varied between passengers; only a relative handful (430) of credit card numbers were accessed, including 427 expired cards, it alleged in its Legco submission. “The two big issues were: which passenger data had been accessed or exfiltrated and, since the affected databases were only partially accessed, whether the data in question could be reconstructed outside Cathay’s IT systems in a readable format useable to the attacker(s). Conclusions on these issues proved difficult and time-consuming and were only reached in mid-August,” added the airline, one of the more high-profile carriers in the Asia-Pacific region. As an explanation for the delay in telling anyone about the hack, Cathay said it “wanted to be able to give a single, accurate and meaningful notification to each affected passenger, rather than to provide an overly broad and non-specific notice.” We've asked Cathay for comment. Local police, as well as legislators, have been notified. The airline has set up a dedicated website for people who think their personal data may have gone walkies. ® Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ha91 Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 I want to think that this is as sophiscated of a response as the attack was. I think it is the first time a company has responded with such maturity, but the breach has instilled fear in the hearts of public. Is it a conincidence that the cyber-attacks have increased tremendously over the past six months? What has happened internationally over the past six-months? 1) US threatens China, with largest drill ever with South Korea and other pacific nations, over South-China Sea. 2) US moves ahead with Russia probe, which although as vague as it may be, it has a potential to unseat Trump from his Twitter chair everytime any justice dept. representative ever sneezed. 3) US and North Korean heads of State meet and pledge to achieve peace, but no substantial or straight commitments. 4) US threatened Russia over Ukraine, 2017 Election meddling and of hacking its institutions. 5) US withdraws from Iran deal and threatens Iran of sanctions and military respose if it does not stop proxy-war in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen and interference ( in terms of hacking) of US's institutions. 6) EU, Canada and China united over trade-deals and method skeptism and criticism by US (via Trump). 7) Banks of multiple countries hacked or atleast attempted and transactions worth over $20 Million from each bank. What do you guys think is the reason(s) for the increased cyber-attack wave? @straycat19 @DonyMach1 @steven36 @nir @Sylence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nir Posted November 13, 2018 Author Share Posted November 13, 2018 Opinion: A lack of mutual respect and populism come to the mind. But the fundamental reasons are as old as humanity. Tools keep on changing, yet the conflict is the same. The cyber is readily available to even the common man and hence the increased cyber-attack wave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ha91 Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Agreed I am sorry I can not like or react to the posts and comments because I seem to run out of the quota too easily and soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ha91 Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Are the limits same for all types of members or do poor members like me have very low limits ~ 20? 😛 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nir Posted November 13, 2018 Author Share Posted November 13, 2018 7 minutes ago, Ha91 said: Are the limits same No. Reflecting our society, there is a ladder to climb. And after all the climbing the climber would be left with an empty feeling, which cannot be filled no matter what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ha91 Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Haha I understand and appreciate that you were quite frank about the empty feeling after an accomplishment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nir Posted November 13, 2018 Author Share Posted November 13, 2018 @Ha91 My comment is based upon my life's realization. There is no accomplishment. None. Nada. Null. Zilch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ha91 Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Haha, I love your humility Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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