MSN Korea hack still unsolved
p2pnet.net News:- Microsoft’s Korea site hacked. Number of victims? Unknown
That was how we summed up yesterday’s news of a raid on www.msn.co.kr, MSN Korea, in which the hackers had been able to organize a penetration custom-designed to ferret out user passwords.
“A previous inspection by Websense of the MSN Korea site the evening of May 27 did not detect the dangerous software,” says the Associated Press, going on, “The chronology suggests the hackers could have harvested stolen passwords from visitors to the MSN site for up to three days.
"But their target - passwords to game accounts - lessened the significance of the break-in since the hacker software appeared not to collect any network or banking passwords.”
Unless that was the way things were meant to look.
“The Lineage game and its successor boast more than 4 million subscribers who pay about $15 each month," AP has Mike Crouch, a spokesman for the US subsidiary of South Korea-based NCSoft Corp, saying.
Investigators are still searching for clues, says AP, and, “More details emerged Friday about the hacking, which targeted subscribers of an online game called ‘Lineage’ that is popular in Asia.”
Bill and the Boyz are still blaming the success of the hack on another company that operates the site for failing to apply Microsoft anti-exploit patches.
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See:-
Associated Press - Password-seeking hackers hit Microsoft’s Korean site, June 4, 2005
Unknown - Microsoft’s Korea site hacked, p2pnet, June 3, 2005
June 4th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Microsoft goes around posing as “security experts”, sends out their asinine “Security Newsletter”, tries to argue that businesses are better off using Microsoft products instead of open source because of Microsoft’s “committment to secure computing”, and then we find that their MSN network for an entire region of the planet has to be shut down for 10 hours, *3 days after* it was hacked!
Then, Microsoft lies about their “rapid response” to the incident:
” ‘Microsoft learned of a criminal attempt to compromise an MSN Korea property hosted by a third party. The Microsoft Security Response Center and MSN response teams immediately mobilized to investigate the incident. Within a few hours, Microsoft took the appropriate action to resolve the issue and stop any additional criminal activity,’ said Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn.
“Sohn continued, ‘Our preliminary opinion here was, this was the result of an unpatched operating system. When stuff is in our data center, it’s easier to control. We’re pretty maniacal about getting servers patched and keeping our customers safe and protected.’ ”
(AP, “MSN Korea Hacked to Capture Passwords, Down 10 Hours”, posted on “Geek Coffee” website, 4 June 05)
Yeah, Microsoft is maniacal allright… just ask anyone who tries to install a purchased copy of XP on more than one computer… they have THAT “security hole” patched up!
Here’s another “detail” about their “maniacal” response to the breach that Sohn left out: Microsoft didn’t discover the breach at all; one of their customers, “Websense” did! And when that customer tried to tell Microsoft about it, they were unable to reach Microsoft’s “maniacal” security sleuths…FOR 3 DAYS!!
“Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense discovered the break-in late Sunday during routine scans it makes against more than 250 million Web sites each week.
“A previous inspection by Websense of the MSN Korea site the evening of May 27 did not detect the dangerous software.
” ‘Our alarms went off. We noticed it was infected,’ said Dan Hubbard, its senior security director.
“Hubbard said Websense researchers investigated further and quickly updated protective software to keep its own corporate customers safe. It did not successfully reach Microsoft officials to warn them about the break-in until midday Tuesday, a day after the Memorial Day holiday weekend.” (Houston Chronicle, “Password-seeking Hackers hit Microsoft’s Korean Site” 4 June 2005, http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/tech/news/3210880 )
So, Microsoft’s robust security can be counted on 24/7… except on holiday weekends!
Of course, it’s possible that “Websense” erred and waited far too long to contact Microsoft about their discovery. But it’s not their job to keep Microsoft’s network secure, is it?
Just one more reason for Microsoft’s users to BEWARE of their phony claims as to how “secure” their products and networks are.
This is also an illustration of how the bourgeois press selectively edits their own news reports. Notice that both these reports I’ve cited are derived from the same AP report… but one includes the “detail” about “Websense’s” discovery, and one doesn’t. Newspaper editors like to protect the “good reputations” of current or possible future advertisers. This kind of “self-censorship” is everywhere in the news today.
June 4th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Microsoft goes around posing as “security experts”, sends out their asinine “Security Newsletter”, tries to argue that businesses are better off using Microsoft products instead of open source because of Microsoft’s “committment to secure computing”, and then we find that their MSN network for an entire region of the planet has to be shut down for 10 hours, *3 days after* it was hacked!
Then, Microsoft lies about their “rapid response” to the incident:
” ‘Microsoft learned of a criminal attempt to compromise an MSN Korea property hosted by a third party. The Microsoft Security Response Center and MSN response teams immediately mobilized to investigate the incident. Within a few hours, Microsoft took the appropriate action to resolve the issue and stop any additional criminal activity,’ said Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn.
“Sohn continued, ‘Our preliminary opinion here was, this was the result of an unpatched operating system. When stuff is in our data center, it’s easier to control. We’re pretty maniacal about getting servers patched and keeping our customers safe and protected.’ ”
(AP, “MSN Korea Hacked to Capture Passwords, Down 10 Hours”, posted on “Geek Coffee” website, 4 June 05)
Yeah, Microsoft is maniacal allright… just ask anyone who tries to install a purchased copy of XP on more than one computer… they have THAT “security hole” patched up!
Here’s another “detail” about their “maniacal” response to the breach that Sohn left out: Microsoft didn’t discover the breach at all; one of their customers, “Websense” did! And when that customer tried to tell Microsoft about it, they were unable to reach Microsoft’s “maniacal” security sleuths…FOR 3 DAYS!!
“Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense discovered the break-in late Sunday during routine scans it makes against more than 250 million Web sites each week.
“A previous inspection by Websense of the MSN Korea site the evening of May 27 did not detect the dangerous software.
” ‘Our alarms went off. We noticed it was infected,’ said Dan Hubbard, its senior security director.
“Hubbard said Websense researchers investigated further and quickly updated protective software to keep its own corporate customers safe. It did not successfully reach Microsoft officials to warn them about the break-in until midday Tuesday, a day after the Memorial Day holiday weekend.” (Houston Chronicle, “Password-seeking Hackers hit Microsoft’s Korean Site” 4 June 2005, http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/tech/news/3210880 )
So, Microsoft’s robust security can be counted on 24/7… except on holiday weekends!
Of course, it’s possible that “Websense” erred and waited far too long to contact Microsoft about their discovery. But it’s not their job to keep Microsoft’s network secure, is it?
Just one more reason for Microsoft’s users to BEWARE of their phony claims as to how “secure” their products and networks are.
This is also an illustration of how the bourgeois press selectively edits their own news reports. Notice that both these reports I’ve cited are derived from the same AP report… but one includes the “detail” about “Websense’s” discovery, and one doesn’t. Newspaper editors like to protect the “good reputations” of current or possible future advertisers. This kind of “self-censorship” is everywhere in the news today.
Varlet