The Target: Trustanduse.com, a digital platform for consumers to rate products, services, stores, and professionals.
The Take: Exposure of 439,000 records of Personally Identifiable Information including: usernames, first and last names, Facebook IDs, phone numbers, and hashed account passwords.
The Vector: A misconfigured data server was left open and unsecured, meaning anyone with an internet connection could have viewed and downloaded the data.
This breach is critical reminder that authentication controls are an important piece in an overall robust cybersecurity posture. This data is perfect for constructing highly effecting spear-phishing campaigns. Multi-factor authentication and password length and complexity rules on server access are effective strategies to mitigate these kinds of breaches to protect a firm’s data.