[LINK] VeriSign hack in 2010 - just revealed (?)

[Jan Whitaker]

VeriSign Hacked: Security Repeatedly Breached At Key Internet Operator
By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - VeriSign Inc, the company in charge of 
delivering people safely to more than half the world's websites, has 
been hacked repeatedly by outsiders who stole undisclosed information 
from the leading Internet infrastructure company.

The previously unreported breaches occurred in 2010 at the Reston, 
Virginia-based company, which is ultimately responsible for the 
integrity of Web addresses ending in .com, .net and .gov.

VeriSign said its executives "do not believe these attacks breached 
the servers that support our Domain Name System network," which 
ensures people land at the right numeric Internet Protocol address 
when they type in a name such as Google.com, but it did not rule anything out.

VeriSign's domain-name system processes as many as 50 billion queries 
daily. Pilfered information from it could let hackers direct people 
to faked sites and intercept email from federal employees or 
corporate executives, though classified government data moves through 
more secure channels.

"Oh my God," said Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary of the 
Department of Homeland Security and before that the top lawyer at the 
National Security Agency. "That could allow people to imitate almost 
any company on the Net."

The VeriSign attacks were revealed in a quarterly U.S. Securities and 
Exchange Commission filing in October that followed new guidelines on 
reporting security breaches to investors. It was the most striking 
disclosure to emerge in a review by Reuters of more than 2,000 
documents mentioning breach risks since the SEC guidance was published.

Even if the name system is safe, VeriSign offers a number of other 
services where security is paramount. The company defends customers' 
websites from attacks and manages their traffic, and it researches 
international cybercrime groups.
[snip - more at the link: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/verisign-hack_n_1249275.html ]


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

_ __________________ _