Cybersecurity Breaches: Case Studies

This assignment delves into the world of cybersecurity breaches by examining two prominent cases: the 2017 Verizon Wireless data breach and the global WannaCry ransomware attack. The report meticulously details the events surrounding each breach, outlining the vulnerabilities exploited, the extent of the damage inflicted on affected organizations and individuals, and the recommended preventive measures to mitigate similar risks in the future.

Running head: CYBER ATTACKS
Cyber Attacks
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Executive Summary
The main aim of this report is to know the principal description of Information Technology
security breaches in the technological world. Information and Communications Technology or
ICT is a risk for the rest of the world and the cause for this threat is the cyber attacks. The report
briefly describes about the case study of Verizon Wireless Cyber Attack that took place in 2017,
July. The report further covers the May 2017 Ransomware Attack with proper description.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part A...............................................................................................................................................3
The Problem.................................................................................................................................3
Cause of the Breach.....................................................................................................................3
Data Breach Occurrence..............................................................................................................4
Recommended Solution...............................................................................................................5
Part B...............................................................................................................................................5
The Problem.................................................................................................................................5
Affected Countries.......................................................................................................................6
Procedure.....................................................................................................................................6
Recommended Measures.............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
A cyber attack or a security breach is an event resulting in the illegal utilization of
services, data and applications. It is also termed as security violation (Collier, 2017). Cyber
attacks occur that moment when an unsanctioned network or person tries to enter in an illegal
and confidential IT region.
The report outlines a brief description of the case study of Verizon Wireless of USA,
occurred in July 2017. This report covers a detailed discussion of the cyber attack, the people
who were affected and proper recommendations. The second part of the report discusses about
the description of the WannaCry Ransomware Cyber Attack of May 2017 (Martin, Kinross &
Hankin, 2017). The description of the report is given in the following paragraphs.
Part A
The Problem
Verizon Wireless is a renowned organization of telecommunications of USA that offers
wireless services and products. In spite of being recognized, Verizon Wireless faced a deadly
cyber attack for leaking of cloud. The partner of Verizon was responsible for this leakage of all-
important data in cloud (Fox News., 2017). The accounts of approximately millions of clients
were exposed. This created a major problem for both the company and the customers.
Cause of the Breach
The main cause for the security breach was a non-configured repository file, which was
cloud based. This non-configuration leaked the data of about 14 million customers of Verizon
Wireless. The cloud-based software was owned by the NICE Systems and the telephonic system.

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The third party vendor of Verizon company is the NICE Systems (Khalil et al., 2013). Its
repository data was the S3 bucket of Amazon Services of Web. Verizon used to verify the
customers information with the PIN codes of their accounts. These PIN codes were also exposed
in this fraud. The contact numbers of the customers were also exposed in this breach. The details
of the accounts, the customers’ names, their addresses and all other important data were leaked
and were accessible by the S3 bucket of Amazon Services (Mathews, 2017). This particular
cyber attack shook the whole IT world and proved the insecurity and the challenges of cloud
computing in ICT. The second cause for this security breach was due to NICE Systems. The non-
configuration of the cloud-based structure of NICE Systems was the reason for this breach. The
previous story of the Systems is extremely weak especially in the supply of technical contents to
various firms. It unveils the indicator of the perplexed manner of the surveillance, which was
registered by the state. Clients could enter in their accounts and get data from a repository, which
can be downloaded. It is an upcoming threat as when the data will be downloaded, and then it
can be divided with a third party, which resulted in the huge loss to the companies of USA.
Data Breach Occurrence
The major problem in Verizon Wireless security breach was the non-configuration in the
cloud network. This mainly occurred due to the non-configuration of NICE Systems. The third
party vendor of Verizon Wireless should have viewed the problem and should have made the
software more secured before any problem like this could have occurred (Romanosky, Hoffman
& Acquisti, 2014). Precaution is always better than cure. Verizon Wireless should have made
their system stronger to avoid such kind of problem. It is a major problem for any company to
search for the loopholes in the configuration in the network of cloud. Proper recognition of the
wrong configuration can solve all the problem in this matter.

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Recommended Solution
The third party vendor of Verizon Wireless, the NICE Systems should focus on the
matter and solve the issue of wrong configuration. This particular configuration issue of the IT
systems should have been carefully controlled by the telecommunications company before this
type of problem had been occurred. The systems should have been upgraded on a regular on
annual basis so that it can take huge data on its cloud architecture. Selection of the third party
vendor was another important precaution for the problem of Verizon (Mathews, 2017). The
hardware of the IT systems should have checked regularly so that there is no downfall in their
performance. Proper IT engineers should have been hired by the company to avoid such kind of
security breaches. Cyber security policies are another major solution of the cyber attacks in any
company. Authenticated signatures are also useful for such security breaches. Regular up
gradation and patching of the software should shield vulnerabilities (Romanosky, Hoffman &
Acquisti, 2014). Cryptography is another solution for these problems. The vendor should be clear
with its customer. Protection of cloud architecture is also needed.
Part B
The Problem
The WannaCry ransomware cyber attack, which occurred in May 2017 was the most
deadly security breach in the world. The infamous WannaCry ransomware crypto worm did it.
The main target of this crypto worm was on the computers, which were running on the operating
system of Microsoft Windows. The major problem of this breach was that the data of the
operating system were encrypted easily (Mattei, 2017). The hackers demanded for ransom
money. The hackers asked to pay the money in Bit coin Crypto currency. The attack took place

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on May 12, 2017. It affected around 230000 computers and it affected for more than 150
countries. The recognized health service of United Kingdom known as the National Health
Service was also affected. It was able to run fewer services, which were needed in emergency
situations. After some days of the attack, one of the security researcher discovered the crypto
worm and understood the code of the ransom ware (Mohurle, & Patil, 2017). Microsoft detected
the loopholes and found out the methods and techniques to overcome the faults in the system.
The new versions such as the Windows 7 and windows 8 are safe and secured. However, people
who are still utilizing and accessing the Windows XP version and other unsanctioned versions
are still under the security threat.
Affected Countries
Europol noticed that approximately 230000 computers with Windows operating system
were affected because they were infected by ransom ware. It was spread in more than 150
countries throughout the world (Mattei, 2017). The extremely and highly affected countries of
this crypto worm were Russia, India, Ukraine and Taiwan. Hospitals like the Scotland Hospital
and National Health Service of United Kingdom suffered due to this cyber attack. The worm
infected for more than 70000 computers in the hospitals. Nissan Manufacturing of UK halted
their production due to this breach.
Procedure
The attack was done in somewhat different style. It was not done by phishing. The
malware at first checked that whether there was any kill switch domain or not. The ransom ware
attacks occurred because such domains were absent and the data was easily encrypted (Khalil et
al., 2013). The attack took place through an SMB port, which was exposed due to vulnerability.

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When the attack was done, it displayed a message that asked for 300 dollars Bit coin in a time
period of three days or 600 dollars Bit coin in a time period of seven days.
Recommended Measures
Certain preventive measures are present for this particular problem. Microsoft Protection
Center mentioned several steps to prevent the WannaCry ransomware attack (Martin, Kinross &
Hankin, 2017). The usage and installation of up dated antivirus software is a solution for this
problem. Avoiding of clicking on wrong websites is also a solution for this problem.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above report is can be concluded that, security breaches are major
problems in modern world. The above report clearly describes about the two famous security
breaches. They are Verizon Wireless of USA in July, 2017 and the WannaCry Ransom ware in
May, 2017. The report describes the detailed description of the case studies.

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References
Collier, R. (2017). NHS ransomware attack spreads worldwide.
Fox News. (2017). Verizon data breach: 14 million customers reportedly exposed. Retrieved 27
August 2017, from http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/07/12/verizon-data-breach-14-
million-customers-reportedly-exposed.html
Khalil, I. M., Khreishah, A., Bouktif, S., & Ahmad, A. (2013, April). Security concerns in cloud
computing. In Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG), 2013 Tenth
International Conference on (pp. 411-416). IEEE.
Martin, G., Kinross, J., & Hankin, C. (2017). Effective cybersecurity is fundamental to patient
safety.
Mathews, L. (2017). Millions Of Verizon Customers Exposed By Third-Party Data
Leak. Forbes.com. Retrieved 27 August 2017, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/leemathews/2017/07/13/millions-of-verizon-customers-
exposed-by-third-party-leak/#929962836bc9
Mattei, T. A. (2017). Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security of Health Care Information: Lessons
from the Recent WannaCry Cyberattack. World Neurosurgery, 104, 972-974.
Mohurle, S., & Patil, M.(2017). A brief study of Wannacry Threat: Ransomware Attack
2017. International Journal, 8(5).
Romanosky, S., Hoffman, D., & Acquisti, A. (2014). Empirical analysis of data breach
litigation. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 11(1), 74-104.

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