Following the news that the personal info of 1.37 billion people has been exposed after spammers failed to password-protect their backups, Matt Walmsley, EMEA director at Vectra Networks commented below.
Matt Walmsley, EMEA Director and Vectra Networks:
“Although it’s difficult to take pity on spammers, River City Media’s misfortune is a cautionary tale to business. Unsecured servers and databases are an open invitation to attackers who can use them to gain direct access to the company’s most sensitive information and important assets. Worryingly, five per cent of IPMI manageable servers are ‘secured’ by commonly-used default passwords, 30 per cent have easily guessable passwords and only 72 per cent authenticate access. What’s more, the UK is ranked 6th globally for exposed IPMI hosts, making it a tantalising target for hackers. As a baseline, businesses must password protect their confidential data, do away with default passwords and change those passwords regularly. The enforcement of password protection policies is essential.”
