Data Backup Digest

Verizon Enterprise Solutions has been the victim of another hack, according to reports, and this one is affecting the records of approximately 1.5 million Verizon customers around the globe. While they've been the target of several cyber-attacks as of late, none have gained access to such a large amount of customer data.

However, it's important to note that the breach only affected customers of Verizon Enterprise Solutions. As stated by a Verizon spokesperson, consumer customers were not involved. Verizon was quick to notify their Enterprise customers who were affected, many of which use Verizon Enterprise Solutions, ironically enough, for their increased security offerings.

To make matters worse, this data was made available for purchase through an underground cybercrime website. Hackers placed prices ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for specific sets of customer data. To top it off, hackers were also offering whitepapers describing security flaws and holes within the official Verizon website.

Vishal Gupta, CEO of IT security specialist Seclore, spoke about the significance of the recent hack during a recent interview with USA Today by saying: "With 99 percent of the Fortune 500 using Verizon Enterprise Solutions, the compromise of 1.5 million customers’ contact details could have a huge payday for hackers. Stealing contact information doesn’t have the immediate payoff of a credit card number, but in the long term can be extremely lucrative if leveraged correctly."

Dodi Glenn, vice president of cyber security with the popular website PC Pitstop, echoed Gupta's sentiments by saying: "A lot of Fortune 500 companies use Verizon Enterprise Solutions — makes you wonder if some of those who purchased the data may have plans to use the information to start phishing attacks, since it contains information from companies with lots of money."

Fixing the Hole

Verizon is downplaying the attack by stating: " Our investigation to date found an attacker obtained basic contact information on a number of our enterprise customers. No customer proprietary network information (CPNI) or other data was accessed or accessible."

Despite this fact, the breach of 1.5 million customer records, enterprise or otherwise, is a pretty serious issue. Security experts have already resolved the network vulnerabilities that led to this specific attack, but it's difficult to say what other weaknesses may be exposed in the coming weeks, months or even years. It's safe to say that Verizon engineers certainly have their work cut out for them.

The team with Verizon has even released reports pertaining to cyberthreats in the 21st century. According to one of their most current reports, which was published by Verizon in 2015, Verizon is well aware of the increasing threat of cybercrime and hacking.

Mike Denning, vice president of global security with Verizon Enterprise Solutions, summed up the report by saying: "We continue to see sizable gaps in how organizations defend themselves . While there is no guarantee against being breached, organizations can greatly manage their risk by becoming more vigilant in covering their bases. This continues to be a main theme, based on more than 10 years of data from our ‘Data Breach Investigations Report’ series."