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700K Guest Records Stolen in Choice Hotels Breach
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tdsan
50%
50%
tdsan,
 User Rank: Ninja
8/13/2019 | 4:22:56 PM
Re: And the circle goes round and round .....
I am with you buddy, it seems the "SAGA" continues, it seems that companies and people are not familiar with the technology so they are just putting it out there without having a third-party vendor validate their design/implementation.

He also stated that it was a test environment to give Choice a new tool to test out new functionality. If that was the case, then why wasn't the system put in an enclosed network that does not allow Internet access and encrypt the data using AES2048 bit encryption, even if they got the data it would not be any good to them (of course if they happen to get the keys, then that is another story).

Choice Hotels Bitcoin Reply

I am like you, "come on people", and why did they use live data (700,000 records were real-data). Why wasn't the data created in an artificial scripted manner (per another article, they said 5.6 million records were artificial, so it looks like a marketing coverup but oh well, same story, different day)?

Time of Breach

Also, look at the timeline when Diachenko identified the issue:
  • June 30: The exposed database was first indexed by search engine BinaryEdge.
  • July 2: Security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered the database and immediately notified Choice Hotels about the exposure. It already contained the ransom note. Choice Hotels says it unintentionally filtered the email so that it was not read.
  • July 2: Database access was secured.
  • July 28: Diachenko sent a second notification and Choice Hotels began its investigation of the incident.

All I can say is wow.

T

 

 


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