Francisco Fiasco | Forensic 101
Everyone and everything is online now. We live our lives online, we chat online, we shop online and we even learn online. Our finances have shifted online too, especially post demonetisation. The government is striving to make our economy digital. Digital India is their goal. It sounds well and good. A digital economy will mean fewer cash frauds, easier transactions and a significant decrease in the flow of black money.
However, going digital isn’t really the safest bet. Hacking and online attacks are an everyday phenomenon. Online fraud, identity theft even online robberies happen all around the world on a daily basis. This is one of the main reasons we need to educate and take digital forensics seriously.
We at Forensic 101 create videos on the digital frauds and hacks that takes place in day to day life, hence educating people and making internet a safe place. We work closely with DIgital Forensic Solution companies and education institutes.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency or “Muni” system were greeted with handmade “Out of Service” “Metro Free” “You Hacked. ALL data encrypted,”signs on station ticket machines.The computer terminals at all Muni locations carried the “hacked” message: “Contact for key ([email protected]),” the message read.The hacker in control of that email account said he had compromised thousands of computers at the SFMTA, scrambling the files on those systems with strong encryption. The files encrypted by his ransomware could only be decrypted with a special digital key, and that key would cost 100 Bitcoins, or approximately USD $73,000 and the agency refused to pay. Trains were running however and passengers were able to board and travel across the city for free after the Muni turned off its payment machines and opened its turnstiles.Turns out, the miscreant behind this extortion attempt got hacked himself, revealing details about other victims as well as tantalizing clues about his identity and location.A security researcher said he compromised the extortionist’s inbox by guessing the answer to his secret question, which then allowed him to reset the attacker’s email password.However, San Francisco got off lightly, as details from a departmental report reveal the fallout could’ve been far worse than the temporary disruption caused over the weekend. Cyberarattacks can destroy a transit agency’s physical systems, render them inoperable, hand over control of those systems to an outside entity or jeopardize the privacy of employee or customer data.What is clear is the increasing number of cyberattacks that have targeted critical infrastructures and operations such as public transit systems and hospitals, are only likely to get more disruptive and can be rendered useless by anyone possessing a box cutter and physical access these cables.
