Infragard Hack- All About FBI’s Critical Information Breach
Cyberattacks have become common in the last few years in American businesses, including small-scale companies and large corporations. The FBI often helps businesses by providing guidelines on securing businesses and preventing attacks. However, in recent events, an FBI outreach program called InfraGard has become the victim of a major attack.
Many individuals, business owners, and professionals are questioning how the highly secure servers of an FBI-vetted organization could be hacked. Additionally, people are wondering about the security standards of their own organization and whether or not it is adequately protected against such occurrences.
This article will detail all the information regarding these queries. In the end, Tekkis Cybersecurity will provide tips on how to prevent such attacks from threatening your own organization.
What is InfraGard?
InfraGard is a non-profit organization in the US. It was formed as a partnership between the Federal Business of Investigation (FBI) and the US businesses. The purpose of InfraGard is to share information and secure the interests of government bodies and the vast private sector. The members of InfraGard are vetted and include business executives, lawyers, entrepreneurs, academic institutions, and many other agencies.
History of InfraGard
InfraGard began in 1996 at the FBI's field office in Cleveland. It began as a local program to seek the help of the IT industry in helping the FBI with their investigations. The success of the program led it to become a national-level effort soon after.
What is InfraGard Data Breach 2022?
The InfraGard data breach was reported on December 13th, 2022, by an individual named Brian Krebs. According to reported information, a listing was made on BreachForum that offered the stolen InfraGard data with information on over 80,000 members. The listing price was $50,000 as a one-time-only sale.
The database is said to contain extensive information such as first name, last name, email, social media accounts, addresses, phone numbers, organization details, sector, job titles, and social media account information.
The seller of the database has set their username as USDoD, with an official seal of the US Department of Defense as their avatar picture.
How Did the InfraGard Hack Occur?
To carry out the attack, the hacker carried out social engineering tactics and applied for an InfraGard account. During the application process, the attacker pretended to be the CEO of a major financial institution in the US.
After applying for the account in November, the hacker received the membership a few weeks later in early December. The membership included access to InfraGard’s portal. The hacker then used a script to exploit the InfraGard website and steal the data from the portal.
To verify the validity of the claims, the hacker used InfraGard’s system using their own approved ID and sent a note to another member, who is the head of security of a US tech organization. In the messages, the attacker tried to use social engineering tactics posing as the CEO of the financial organization, with the aim to get additional data on the members.
Is Your Business At Risk?
The data leaked in the InfraGard attack does leak out some private information about the members, such as their names, social media accounts, phone numbers, and email addresses. It can be a bit concerning for most high-level business executives. However, it will pose no threat to an organization if it places proper security protocols since the data leaked is very basic.
The threatening concern is that an FBI-backed portal could be breached so easily. Executives are reevaluating their own security practices to ensure that such kind of breach does not occur in their own organization.
How to Protect Against Such Data Breaches?
Securing your company’s defenses should be one of your top priorities. In case of a cyberattack or a data breach, everything that an organization holds dear is threatened. To avoid anything like this, it is important that you take proper preemptive steps.
Tekkis Cybersecurity has always been the proponent of enforcing a proper cybersecurity policy and conducting regular security audits. With these audits, you can find loopholes in your IT security and learn if your company has the policies to prevent modern-day cyberattacks.
Conduct a Security Audit