Week 12 - Final Blog Lessons Learned From This Course

This was a very interesting course. It was quite the challenge as well. From the layman’s perspective, threat modeling sounds rather simple. However, this is not the case at all.  Throughout the course, I was challenged with the process because of the concepts that must go in at every step. Steps can easily get overlooked or seen differently than they really are. I am a big picture person so at times I miss details that others might see. Sometimes, it is challenging for me to get past my own big picture views to see the actual trees in the forest but this is still something I am working on.

I really enjoy the system analysis process in threat modeling. It combines some of the challenges of understanding a complex system to then combining this understanding into the ideas and concepts of threats. One important understanding to gain from threat modeling is how to best understand vulnerabilities and threats in specific environments. There seems to be some variation from organizations on what is considered a threat or vulnerability. My previous employer seemed to be lacking in the information security area which was frustrating at times because they didn’t value information security practices. This is why I feel like this is a very important part of threat analysis. It was a nice semester and I enjoyed the time I spent in this course! I really enjoyed creating these blogs!

Yours truly,

Rashele Shoun

Week 10 – Chick-fil-A facing potential breach

Chick-Fil-A might be facing a credit card breach as well. More specifically, “Several financial institutions informed Chick-fil-A that various patterns of credit card fraud were being linked back to consumers that used accounts to purchase food at one of their restaurant locations, reports Gizmodo. Since then the chain claims it has been working with federal law enforcement and ‘top IT firms’ to investigate the issue that has affected at least 9,000 individuals” (FOX News, 2015). I see an ongoing issue of attacks that just seem to be getting worse.

Interestingly enough, “On Jan. 2, Chick-fil-A issued a cautious statement about a ‘potential’ data breach but wants to assure customers that if ‘a breach has occurred, customers will not be liable for any fraudulent charges to their accounts --- any fraudulent charges will be the responsibility of either Chick-fil-A or the bank that issued the card.’ In the event of breach confirmation, the chain says it will offer free identity protection services to affected individuals including credit monitoring” (FOX News, 2015). It seems that perhaps we need more and more IT Security professionals out there to investigate the issues at hand. I wonder how many companies are actually utilizing security audits. I think this is probably something that companies should consider in order to try and lower these types of attacks. We need more proactive approaches to Information Security.

           

Reference

FOX News. (2015, January 5). Chick-Fil-A investigating possible credit card breach of over 9,000 customers. Retrieved from FOX News: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/01/05/chick-fil-investigating-possible-credit-card-breach-over-000-customers/

Week 9 – Sally Beauty Second Credit Card Breach

            We all feel the hit when a major retailer gets hit with a breach the first time. How does it feel to see the same retailer hit again? Well, it’s going to cost you some business, at least as far as credit card transactions are concerned. I know I won’t be using my credit card at Sally’s anymore. “On March 5, 2014, [it was] reported that a batch of more than 282,000 cards that went up for sale on Rescator[dotc]cc — the same site that was first to sell cards stolen in the Home Depot and Target breaches — all traced back to customers who’d shopped at Sally Beauty locations nationwide. Asked about that pattern at the time, a company spokesperson said Sally Beauty had recently detected an intrusion into its network, but that neither its information technology experts nor an outside forensics firm could find evidence that customer card data had been stolen from the company’s systems” (Krebs on Security, 2015).

“But on March 17, 2014, Sally Beauty officially confirmed a breach of its network, but said its investigation determined that fewer than 25,000 card accounts were removed from its network. Nevertheless, a subsequent, exhaustive analysis of the Sally Beauty store ZIP codes listed in the cards for sale on Rescator’s site indicated that the 2014 breach impacted virtually all 2,600+ Sally Beauty locations nationwide” (Krebs on Security, 2015). I’m more interested in understanding how the attackers were able to get in. Could Sally Beauty have been able to prevent these breaches? Were they protecting their networks? I would like to see more information on this so that I can decide as a customer if I should continue to do business with this company. I prefer doing business with company’s who value my card holder data. It’s important to me that businesses protect my information otherwise I won’t want to give them any of this information. I suppose I’ll have to wait until further investigation is done on this matter.

Reference

Krebs on Security. (2015, May). Sally Beauty Card Breach, Part Deux? Retrieved May 4, 2015, from Krebs on Security: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/05/sally-beauty-card-breach-part-deux/