Human beings tend to carry a lot of valuable traits in their arsenal, but the one that tops them all is how we just manage to get better under all situations. You see, when someone is able to grow regardless of the surrounding circumstances, they rightfully makes themselves eligible for some significant milestones along the way. Talk about the milestones we have stumbled upon so far, each one has enhanced our living experience in one capacity or the other. However, while their uniqueness eliminates any viable comparison, we still can’t help but believe that technology is, by far, the best thing to emerge in here. We say so because, as soon as technology arrived on the scene, the dynamics started to look completely for the better. Suddenly, everything was within our reach, and we, in turn, really made the most of it. This, of course, couldn’t save us from the creation’s limitations, with a big one talking to all the cybersecurity issues. In fact, our concerns about cybersecurity have only grown over time. Don’t believe it? Well, let’s look into a recent case involving Verizon that will definitely get you to question your safety.
Verizon has officially confirmed that it was hit by a cyberattack, which captured its database containing personal employee information, including the full names of workers, their ID numbers, email addresses, and phone numbers etc. According to a Motherboard report, the hacker, who carried out the attack, is now holding the company ransom for a sum of $250,000. Talk about how they pulled it off, the hacker went the social engineering route to establish a remote connection with a Verizon employee’s computer. Posing as someone from the internal support team, they convinced the employee in question to give them the remote access. Once the access was allowed, the hacker wasted no time in launching a script that copied all the data from the computer. Now, while this cyberattack already seems dangerous as an isolated incident, it can cause further damage. Assuming the hacker was successful in spoofing the number of the employee, who they used as their cover, it won’t be hard for them to use a similar technique and instigate a full-blown SIM swapping fraud. However, at present, Verizon appears pretty confident that nothing like the stated possibility will materialize in near future.
When confirmed the hack to Motherboard, a Verizon spokesperson said:
“A fraudster recently contacted us threatening to release readily available employee directory information in exchange for payment from Verizon. We do not believe the fraudster has any sensitive information and we do not plan to engage with the individual further. As always, we take the security of Verizon data very seriously and we have strong measures in place to protect our people and systems.”