Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[Genz2]

Hacker leaks data on Angela Merkel and hundreds of German lawmakers

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/04/germany-data-breach-lawmakers-leak/?sr_share=twitter&utm_source=tctwreshare

A hacker has targeted and released private data on German chancellor Angela Merkel i and other senior German lawmakers and officials.

The data was leaked from a Twitter account, since suspended, and included email addresses, phone numbers, photo IDs and other personal data on hundreds of senior political figures.

According to a government spokesperson, there was no “sensitive” data from the chancellor’s office, but other lawmakers had more personal data stolen. Other portions of the leaked data included Facebook and Twitter passwords. Some had their credit card information stolen, and chat logs and private letters published in the breach.

Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security said in a statement that it was “extensively investigating” the breach, but does not believe there was an attack on the government’s networks.

It’s been reported that the hacker may have obtained passwords to access social media accounts. Often, hackers do this by tricking a phone company into “porting out” a person’s phone number to another SIM card, allowing them to password reset accounts or obtain two-factor codes.

The hacker leaked data on senior lawmakers across the political spectrum, but noticeably absent were accounts for the country’s far-right Alternative for Germany party.

The hack is reminiscent of a data breach involving the Democratic National Committee in 2016, which targeted the Democrats in the U.S. in the months running up to the U.S. presidential election. The U.S. government later attributed the hack to Russia, which prosecutors say tried to influence the election to elect Donald Trump to the White House. The Justice Department brought charges against seven suspects earlier this year for being part of the so-called “Fancy Bear” group of hackers, working on behalf of the Russian government.

Little is known about who is behind the leak of German lawmakers’ data. The German government has not speculated about who — or if a nation state — may have been behind the attack. But the alleged hacker said in a statement linked from their Twitter account that they “operated alone and does not belong to any organization or similar on Twitter.”

According to security experts who’ve seen portions of the data, the hacker spread the stolen information across several sites and mirrors, making it “really hard to take down.”

Germany’s minister for justice Katarina Barley called the breach a “serious attack,” one that aimed to “damage confidence in our democracy and institutions,” according to the BBC.

It’s not the first time that the German parliament has faced security issues. In 2015, attackers stole gigabytes of data on lawmakers, which Germany’s domestic spy agency later accused Russia of being behind the breach.

Russia has repeatedly denied launching cyberattacks.
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The IT perimeter is gone

With tablets, smartphones, and cloud applications, your employees can access sensitive data anytime, from anywhere. Indeed, around 70 percent of security breaches and data thefts are inside jobs. Meanwhile, the hackers only get better: advanced persistent threats (APTs) appear as normal traffic, and malware can go unnoticed for weeks.

It’s a new world, one without borders. Yet most organizations are still trying to protect their data with the same old firewalls and antivirus software. It’s not working. We refer you to the headline-making breach of the week.

You have to start with the device

Wave has an alternative: security that’s built into each and every device.

We’re talking about hardware: self-encrypting drives (SEDs), which protect data when a device is stolen or lost, and trusted platform modules (TPMs), or embedded security chips. Both go in at the factory, and increasingly, both are standard. They make it possible for you to monitor and control each individual device and its data, no matter where it is. But you need software to turn on and manage your SEDs and TPMs. Wave makes that software.

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Security that’s confirmed, not assumed

With Wave, you’ll know that you’re secure. Because we start with the individual devices, you get a broad, deep view of your network. You can see exactly who’s on it, with what devices and what apps, at any given time. Just for example, if Bob goes home and tries to log onto Facebook with the company laptop, Wave can stop him.

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Start closing your security gaps today, with what you’ve got

You might be surprised to hear that 90 percent or more of your computers probably already have TPMs. Mobile devices are catching up fast. SEDs are newer, but you probably have a bunch of those too. Machines that don’t have them can often be outfitted at little to no extra cost. So you’ve got some or all of the hardware. All you need to do is turn it on with Wave.

It’s almost as easy as it sounds. TPMs and SEDs are built to open, vendor-neutral industry standards, and so are Wave solutions. That means Wave works on your existing mix of hardware, across platforms, and will evolve with you. It’s part of what makes the Wave alternative not only more secure, but also simpler and cheaper. Total cost of ownership for Wave data protection can be almost half that of a traditional software-based system.

Questions? Read on, or contact our sales department.
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