CyberSec Roundup
A synopsis of the latest Cybersecurity News

Microsoft Source Code Accessed

Microsoft disclosed that the threat actors who compromised their network via the SolarWinds vulnerability were able to take control of a few of their internal accounts. After escalating the privileges of these accounts, they were able to view source code for some Microsoft products and deploy various malicious executes on their network. However, none of their source code was modified and none of their production services or customer data was compromised.

Zyxel Backdoor

Zyxel, the Taiwanese networking components manufacturer, discovered that their VPN and firewall devices had a hardcoded, secret account. This admin account was used for updating purposes but can be used as a backdoor by an attacker to compromise the device. This affects various products lines such as the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) series, Unified Security Gateway (USG) series, USG FLEX series, VPN series and NXC series. Patches for the issue are currently available.

Finnish Parliament Hacked

Finland announced that hackers were able to compromise their internal IT system and access the email accounts of a several members of parliament last fall. They say the breach was recently discovered and it is being investigated as an espionage incident.

Ticketmaster Fined

Ticketmaster was fined $10 million for illegally accessing the systems of its competitor CrowdSurge. Stephen Mead was the former GM of CrowdSurge, and when he moved to Ticketmaster, he used the unchanged password of CrowdSurge’s Artist Toolbox app to unlawfully collect business intelligence. Ticketmaster is also required to implement a compliance and ethics program which the US Attorney’s Office will oversee for the next 3 years.

By: David Pinder
IT & Security Consultant
Certified Ethical Hacker