The hacks into the internal systems of Lexis Nexis and Dun & Bradstreet merely reinforce the notion that knowledge of personal information — on its own — should not be used for conclusive authentication of the user. A layered security approach, rather than relying on any single technology or approach.
SSNDOB.ms marketed itself on underground cybercrime forums as a reliable and affordable service that customers can use to look up Social Security numbers, birthdays and other personal data on any U.S. resident,
Analyses uncovered that credentials SSNDOB admins used were also responsible for operating a botnet that apparently tapped into the internal systems of large data brokers. LexisNexis confirmed that it was compromised as far back as April 10 designed to open an encrypted channel of communications from within LexisNexis’s internal systems to the botnet controller on the public Internet.
Two other compromised systems were located inside the networks of Dun & Bradstreet
The fifth server compromised as part of this botnet was located at Internet addresses assigned to Kroll Background America.Files left behind by intruders into the company’s internal network suggest the breach extends back to at least June 2013.
None of the 46 top anti-malware tools on the market today detected it as malicious (as of today, the malware is currently detected by six out of 46 anti-malware tools at Virustotal)
