Cybersecurity Case Study: Spambot Data Breach

This cybersecurity case study investigates the 2017 Spambot data breach, where over 700 million email addresses and passwords were leaked. The report analyzes the reasons behind the breach, including insecure servers and lax data protection practices. It also explores possible solutions to mitigate such breaches, emphasizing secure file transfer, data minimization, monitoring, and employee security training.

Running head: INFORMATION SECURITY
Case Study-Spambot leaks more than 700m email addresses in massive data breach
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
1. Description of the problem..........................................................................................................2
2. Reasons of occurrences................................................................................................................2
3. Possible solutions.........................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................5

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1. Description of the problem
The report mainly focuses on the cyber security news “Spambot data breach” which
occurred on 30 August 2017. It is identified that due to the data breach more than 700 email as
well as number of passwords have publicly leaked. There are millions of passwords, which is
contained within this data breach. This because of the spammer who collect information as well
as data in an attempt to break in to the email account of the users and generally sends spam under
the name of the users (Hern, 2017). The data that was generally available as the spammers are
unable to secure the servers due to which any visitor can be able to download information
without requiring any type of credentials. It is found that there are more than 700 email
addresses but most of them are not generally linked with the real accounts. Some of the email
addresses are generally scrapped inaccurately from the public. In addition to this, finding data
oneself does not helps in providing information about the destination where the email addresses
was obtained. The leak generally helps in highlighting the fact that passwords can be the root
cause of many types of security related problems for organizations.
2. Reasons of occurrences
The Spambot data breach mainly occurs because the spammers are not able to provide
proper security to the servers and thus any visitor can download files without requiring proper
credentials. It is very much difficult to know the destination of place from where the files have
been downloaded. The spammers generally collect information and break in to the email account
of the users under the name of spam. It is identified that millions of email addresses as well as
passwords are leaked due to the data breach (Whittaker, 2017). It is identified that the

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information mainly leaked after the cyber criminals allowed the visitors within the servers to
download various database without proper password as well as username. The bot generally
assist in spreading of malware that generally steals various types of bank details that mainly
causes people to transmit various types of viruses. It is identified that many of the email
addresses are not properly linked to the real accounts as some of the accounts are not properly
scraped from various public net while others appear to have been guessed by adding appropriate
words in front of standard domain to generate.
3. Possible solutions
The organization is taking proper protection of various data as well as information of the
customers with the help of a robust program, which continually helps in reviewing as well as
updating the latest online threats. It is found that additional measures are needed for preventing
various security breaches and the measures are provided below:
Secure transfer: The files as well as folders must be transferred properly in a quite
secured way for preventing breach.
Shared files: The organization must shred different types of folders as well as files
before disposing proper storage equipment (Joshi & Singh, 2017).
Reduction of data transfer: The data transfer from one email address to another must
be reduced in order to prevent security breach. Other application must be utilized which can be
helpful in retrieving information.

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Monitoring data leakage: It is identified that security control must be checked
periodically that helps in allowing the security team to have proper control on the network
(Choong et al., 2016).
Security training: It is quite important to provide proper privacy as well as security
training so that clients as well as others related to the data can bring proper awareness so that this
type of security breach will be avoided.

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References
Choong, P., Hutton, E., Richardson, P., & Rinaldo, V. (2016, January). ASSESSING THE
COST OF SECURITY BREACH: A MARKETER'S PERSPECTIVE. In Allied
Academies International Conference. Academy of Marketing Studies. Proceedings (Vol.
21, No. 1, p. 1). Jordan Whitney Enterprises, Inc.
Hern, A. (2017). Spambot leaks more than 700m email addresses in huge data breach. the
Guardian. Retrieved 2 September 2017, from
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/30/spambot-leaks-700m-email-
addresses-huge-data-breach-passwords
Joshi, M., & Singh, V. K. (2017). Data Security Breach as Perceived Risk and its Influence on
Consumer Purchase Decision. Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and
Management, 7(8), 187-196.
Whittaker, Z. (2017). 711 million email addresses ensnared in "largest" malware
spambot. ZDNet. Retrieved 2 September 2017, from
http://www.zdnet.com/article/onliner-spambot-largest-ever-malware-campaign-millions/