In yet another data breach incident, cyber-attackers revealed confidential personal information related to hundreds of police personnel in Colombia. According to Colombia Reports, attackers allegedly disseminated spam e-mails to around 250 police personnel of the National Police of the country. Officials who fell prey to the scam inadvertently disclosed their personal information. The disclosed information includes identification numbers and residential addresses of the counter crime officials. A native cyber-attack group has claimed responsibility of the data exposure.
The data breach follows an attack on the website of the country's ministry of defense, and alleged hijacking of the social media accounts of current as well as a former heads of state. Attackers reportedly hijacked the Facebook account of the incumbent President Santos and Twitter account of former President Uribe. Anonymous group reportedly carried out the attacks on the Independence Day of Colombia. They allegedly posted a link on the hijacked accounts that directed visitors to a video on YouTube. The attackers also posted the group Logo on the microblogging account of former President.
Anonymous has been responsible for several attacks on government and corporate websites under the 'Anti Sec' campaign. The attacks come even after several arrests of alleged members of the cyber-attack group in United States (U.S), United Kingdom (U.K) and Netherlands. The attack group even launched its own social media site following the closure of their Google+ account. However, a rival attack group was successful in hijacking the site.
Cyber-attackers dump the extracted information on file sharing sites or underground crime sites providing opportunity for other attackers and criminals to launch targeted attacks on individual and organizational accounts. Negligent practices such as responding to unsolicited e-mails, use of weak or common passwords allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to user accounts and extract sensitive personal, financial, business or proprietary information. Cyber-attackers may also target counter crime officials to gain confidential information related to their associates currently under detention. Last year, cybercriminals created a fake account of Interpol Chief on a social media site. Workshops, training programs and online degree courses may help counter crime personnel in understanding and improving cyber security practices.
Professionals qualified in masters of security science may help organizations in making appropriate assessment of threats, address security lapses, and ensure implementation of the IT security policies.
Governments must encourage online university degree programs on cyber security to improve awareness among netizens, students and working professionals.
