[ISN] Oops! Firm accidentally eBays customer database

[InfoSec News]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/07/hdd_wipe_shortcomings/

By John Leyden
7th June 2004 

A customer database and the current access codes to the supposedly
secure Intranet of one of Europe's largest financial services group
was left on a hard disk offered for sale on eBay. The disc was
subsequently purchased for just £5 by mobile security outfit Pointsec
Mobile Technologies.

According to Pointsec, one of the hard discs contained "highly
sensitive information from one of Europe's largest financial services
groups with pension plans, customer databases, financial information,
payroll records, personnel details, login codes, and admin passwords
for their secure Intranet site. There were 77 Microsoft Excel
documents of customers email addresses, dates of birth, their home
addresses, telephone numbers and other highly confidential
information, which if exposed publicly could cause irrevocable damage
to the company." Pointsec isn't prepared to name the careless company.

The incident recalls the episode four years where Sir Paul McCartney's
banking details were discovered on a second-hand computer discarded by
merchant bankers Morgan Grenfell Asset Management. The PC was released
into the second-user market without first being wiped clean of data, a
precaution that the majority of sellers still fail to take.

Pointsec purchased 100 hard discs over auction site as part of its
research into the "lifecycle of a lost laptop". Pointsec found that
they were able to read seven out of 10 hard-drives bought over the
Internet at auctions such as eBay despite the fact all of had
"supposedly" been "wiped-clean" or "re-formatted". The company said
the exercise illustrated how easy it is for identity thieves or
opportunists to access highly sensitive and valuable company
information from lost laptops and hard-drives. All the 100 hard drives
and laptops purchased as part of Pointsec's research will be
destroyed.


Lost in transit

The researchers also wanted to find out how easy it is to purchase and
access information on laptops that are lost in transit at an airport
Gatwick or handed into the Police. In all cases they found the laptops
and all the information residing on them, were put up for auction if
they were not reclaimed after three months. Pointsec visited one of
the auctions used by Gatwick airport, near Chertsey and found that
before even purchasing the laptops, the researchers were able to start
up the laptops to inspect whether they worked. Using password recovery
software they were able to access the information on one in three of
these laptops. The exercise was repeated in Sweden, the US and
Germany.

In Sweden the first laptop Pointsec purchased at auction, contained
sensitive information from a large food manufacturer. When the hard
disc was analysed they found four Microsoft Access databases
containing company and customer related information and 15 Microsoft
PowerPoint presentations containing highly sensitive company
information.

Tony Neate Tactical & Technical Industry Liaison at the UK National
Hi-Tech Crime Unit said: "Pointsec's research demonstrates just how
easy it is to access information which is not adequately protected.  
Encryption and other security measures are vital to ensure that
security is not compromised - something as simple as a hard disk drive
password can deter the opportunist."