By Robert Westervelt
Excerpt:
The compromised database server was probably not Internet facing, said Roger Nebel, director of strategic security for Washington D.C.-based FTI Consulting Inc. Instead, a hacker likely used a scanner to find a vulnerable machine, get a foothold inside the network and eventually compromise the database server containing the dental school records.
It takes a lot of work to successfully defend against that kind of attack," Nebel said.
Core Security Technologies Inc. makes a vulnerability testing tool, Core Impact, which automates the same moves that a savvy hacker would take to gain access to a system. The tool scans for vulnerabilities and when it finds a flaw it pushes a software agent into the affected server and acts as a Trojan, attempting to download more software onto the compromised server.
Tools like Core Impact leave a unique signature in log files analyzed by the IT team after the breach discovery, Nebel said.
Source: SearchSecurity.com
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