Kaspersky denies leaks after SQL hack
Summary
The U.S. website of the Russian antivirus vendor was hacked and the company's customer database exposed, but Kaspersky denies data was compromised.
Topics
Russian antivirus vendor Kaspersky Labs's US website was hacked over the weekend, exposing the company's customer database, but Kaspersky has denied data was compromised and says the vulnerability wasn't critical. An unidentified hacker reported over the weekend that he was able to access a complete profile of the company's databases, revealing its clients' names, activation codes, list of bugs the company tracks and client email addresses.The hacker claimed to have hacked Kaspersky Labs's databases using an SQL injection attack, which exploits a vulnerability in an application's database layer.The method has become a popular means to gain information via web-facing applications or as a way to use popular websites to spread malicious software.Microsoft's UK website came under a similar attack in 2007 when hackers used an SQL injection to inject HTML code which seemingly defaced its web pages.The Kaspersky hacker, who published their finding on the Hackersblog.org website, has since said that confidential data would not be released."[The] Kaspersky team doesn't need to worry about us spreading their confidential stuff. Our staff will never save or keep any confidential data. We just point our fingers to big websites with security problems," they reported.Kaspersky Labs has admitted that a subsection of its usa.kaspersky.com domain was vulnerable last Saturday when a hacker "attempted an attack on the site"."The site was only vulnerable for a very brief period, and upon detection of the vulnerability we immediately took action to roll back the subsection of the site and the vulnerability was eliminated within 30 minutes of detection. The vulnerability wasn't critical and no data was compromised from the site," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. This article was originally posted on ZDNet Australia.
Talkback Most Recent of 4 Talkback(s)
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Is Kaspersky Being Completely Honest?
According to the story, the data retrieved would be a compromise in my opinion. Is Kaspersky saying the hackers did NOT get names and e-mail addresses? If that's the case I can only assume the hackers will post some info on the blog to prove otherwise. If they do not, then Kaspersky is correct and the hackers were bluffing? Either way sounds like someone is not being totally honest.
doug@...9th Feb 2009 -
high level hacker:
High level hacker will not work for the goal of public fame. A real high level hacker works for the good of money, so it is pointless to publish their attempt or even say "i did it", is way better to be silent and later sell those information in the black market.
For example, Symantec and other antivirus companies will be willing to buy this list of customer for a hefty price
magallanes10th Feb 2009 -
i agree
i agree with what you said about them selling the infomation.
the fact that the hacker is still anonoums at the moment.
i think if the hackers ment what they said about not releasing the infomation they would name them selfs to a computer crime dept or something to prove what they say they did with infomation they found
and if they still get away after that its well earned cash if they sell it
roger.scotter2@...10th Feb 2009 -
RE: Kaspersky denies leaks after SQL hack
This is a non-story. No proof of an attack; just some random bragging on a hacker blog. Yawn.
barence77312th Feb 2009
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
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