GoDaddy Was Hacked for Three Years Straight

breach, Go Daddy, Hacking, malware, Ophtek, Web hosting, , , , ,
18
Apr 2023

In an admission which will severely damage their reputation, web hosting force GoDaddy has revealed its servers were under attack for several years.

With a userbase of 21 million users, GoDaddy is one of the major players when it comes to providing web hosting services. Given this popularity, GoDaddy’s servers are used by major organizations all over the world such as news outlets, bloggers and e-commerce brands to deliver content and services. And this means there’s a lot of data on the GoDaddy servers, data which is both confidential and valuable. Therefore, to a threat actor, it provides an irresistible target.

Due to the GoDaddy breach, and the business world’s reliance on websites, it’s crucial we understand the mechanics of this stealthy threat.

What Happened to GoDaddy?

The GoDaddy breach first came to its owner’s attentions in December 2022, but it soon became apparent this breach was related to similar breaches in November 2021 and October 2019. However, far from being isolated incidents, these attacks were all part of the same campaign and remained hidden within the IT infrastructure of GoDaddy.

The most recent attack, in December 2022, found the cPanel hosting servers used by GoDaddy customers compromised by threat actors. This gave the attackers full access to the settings involved in how the customers’ websites work and direct traffic. As a result of this breach, visitors to the affected websites were intermittently redirected to malicious websites. Although there is no evidence that it occurred, unauthorized access to the cPanel would also give the threat actors the opportunity to disable access to a website.

What if Your Website is Hosted by GoDaddy?

Given that the initial attacks on GoDaddy’s servers compromised login credentials and secure SSL keys for websites, the latest attack is highly embarrassing for GoDaddy. After all, which organization would want to align themselves with a web host whose servers had regularly been hacked? Nonetheless, GoDaddy has sought to reassure customers that their infrastructure is now secure and security has been enhanced.

Naturally, customers using GoDaddy’s services are going to remain wary, so it’s important they:

  • Change your password: if you’re a GoDaddy customer, it’s recommended you change your password. In fact, regardless of which web hosting service you use, it’s important that you regularly change your password to avoid falling victim to stolen login credentials.
  • Assess your website: due to the access which the GoDaddy breach gave the threat actors, it makes sense to go through your website and ensure nothing is amiss. For example, are your links still directing traffic to where they should be? And are there any unusual popups prompting visitors to “click here”? It may take time to complete a full sweep of your website, but it will be worth it to protect your brand and your customers.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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5 Sure-fire Ways to Know You’ve Been Hacked

Cyber Security, Encryption, Hackers, Hacking, Network, Ophtek, pop ups, , , , , ,
24
May 2022

The aim of most hackers is to be discreet, but there’s almost always a tell-tale sign they’re at work. You just have to know what you’re looking for.

Damage limitation is an essential part of cyber-security and, accordingly, the sooner you realize you’ve been hacked, the sooner you can get to work on rectifying the issue. Establishing that you’ve been hacked, however, isn’t always straightforward. Hackers are well known for their stealthy attack strategies, and, in many cases, you’re unlikely to realize that you’ve been hacked. You may, instead, simply think that your network is experiencing technical problems, and that’s why you can’t access your files, or why your PCs performance has ground to a halt. But you also need to consider that you may have been hacked.

How Do You Know You’ve Been Hacked?

There are several clear giveaways that your organization’s digital defenses have been breached, and here are five of the most sure-fire ways to know you’ve been hacked:

  1. Your Files are Encrypted: your day-to-day IT activity will likely center around the regular usage of files e.g. Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. But what happens when you can’t access these? Firstly, your organization’s productivity will plummet and, secondly, it could indicate that you’ve been the victim of ransomware. If your files are encrypted and a message is received demanding a ransom fee to decrypt them, then you’ve been hacked.
  2. Unusual Network Activity: regular traffic patterns should be easily identifiable on your network logs, but anything unusual should be closely scrutinized. Modern hacking methods often find malware communicating with remote locations to transmit information or download further malware. Therefore, any unknown locations that are delivering or receiving data from your organization need to be investigated.
  3. Persistent Pop-Ups: there’s nothing more irritating than a pop-up window when you’re trying to work on something. But when these are regularly popping up, when they shouldn’t be, there’s a good chance you’ve been hacked. Often, these pop-ups will try to convince you to perform an action, such as downloading an anti-malware app due to an infection on your PC. These, of course, are fake and are simply a devious strategy to get you to download further malware on to your PC.
  4. People Ask You If You’ve Been Hacked: one of the most obvious signs that you’ve been hacked is when people start asking you if you’ve been hacked. And this is because malware often hijacks email accounts to help spread spam. As a result, people you know – who are listed in your email address book – will be receiving spam messages direct from your email account. Naturally, these unusual messages will ring alarm bells with the recipients, and they are likely to check in with you to confirm if your email account has been hacked.
  5. Your Credentials are Available Online: hackers like to make money by harvesting valuable login credentials, these can then be sold to other hackers who want to breach security measures and gain quick, unauthorized access to private networks. Thankfully, applications such as Google’s Password Manager can warn you when these credentials turn up in password dumps, this is a good sign to immediately change all your passwords.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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1.2 Million GoDaddy Users Hit By Managed WordPress Hack

GoDaddy Breach, Hackers, Hacking, Ophtek, Password Security, strong passwords, , , , ,
07
Dec 2021

Web hosting is an integral part of how the modern internet works, but what happens when a provider finds themselves the victim of a hack?

GoDaddy is one of the most popular web hosting providers in the world with an estimated customer base of over 20 million users. Through GoDaddy it’s possible to use their Managed WordPress service to build and host WordPress websites. And, with around 64 million websites currently being powered by WordPress, it’s clear to see why GoDaddy has focused on this platform. Online popularity, however, will always put you in the targets of hackers. A recent breach of GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress service has demonstrated this by hitting 1.2 million of their customers.

How Did GoDaddy Get Hacked?

GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress environment contains huge amounts of data. Not only is there access to the source code for hosted websites, but customer’s personal data is also stored there e.g. email addresses, login credentials and site security certificates. These are data sources which have the potential to cause widespread digital devastation. Email addresses can be used to power phishing campaigns, login credentials give hackers the ability to hijack websites and manipulating security certificates can result in malware being downloaded to unsuspecting victims. But how exactly did one of the world’s most powerful web hosting providers get hacked?

The attack appears to have started in early September 2021 and stemmed from a password becoming compromised. The password in question allowed a third party to gain unauthorized access to GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress system. From here, the hackers were able to harvest the previously mentioned data. Unfortunately, for GoDaddy’s customers, it appears that the passwords being stored for Secure File Transfer Protocol were not encrypted and were available in plaintext. Naturally, this made it much easier for hackers to harvest even more data more quickly. And, worst of all, the attack was not picked up for over two months.

Preventing Similar Breaches in the Future

After discovering the hack, due to suspicious activity being detected on their servers, GoDaddy have moved swiftly to limit the damage. All affected login credentials have been reset and GoDaddy are currently issuing new site security certificates. However, the nature of this breach is a damning indictment of GoDaddy’s security measures. Passwords should be secure. The best ways to prevent such breaches taking place are:

  • Strong Passwords: A strong password is one that is judged difficult to guess. The best way to achieve this is by using a mixture of uppercase characters, lowercase characters, numerical characters and symbols. Mixing these different elements together minimizes the odds of a hacker guessing lucky. Additionally, don’t go for obvious password choices such as your name or your date of birth.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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The Danger of Supply Chain Attacks

Hackers, Hacking, Ophtek, Shylock, SolarWInds, Supply Chain, , , , ,
16
Feb 2021

The supply chain is a crucial element in the business world and, accordingly, this makes it the perfect target for hackers to attack.

When a finished product ends up with a consumer it’s the culmination of a lengthy business process. The supply chain is the succession of activities which are involved in sourcing materials, processing materials and delivering products. Naturally, this process can involve numerous different processes and the involvement of many different organizations. Therefore, the number of opportunities to discover a backdoor or a vulnerability are attractive to a hacker. By infiltrating just one stage of a supply chain, a hacker is granted the chance to attack a large number of individuals.

Supply chain attacks have received a number of headlines over the last few years, so it’s important to arm yourself against them with knowledge.

How Does a Supply Chain Attack Work?

Hackers tend to focus on specific supply chains and carry our research on which part of the process is weakest. This gives the hacker the best opportunity of exploiting the entire supply chain. Typically, these attacks concentrate on smaller firms but, as we will see later, larger firms are also susceptible. The attack will generally be focused upon a target company and hackers will seek to disrupt their operations by infiltrating a third-party supplier e.g. a company which supplies bespoke parts to a manufacturer. The main strategy for a supply chain attack involves disabling IT systems with malware.

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Examples of Supply Chain Attacks

There has been an increase in supply chain attacks in the last few years and some of the most notable ones are:

  • SolarWinds: In late 2020 it was discovered that IT infranstructure company SolarWinds had been the victim of a supply chain attack. Having gained access to SolarWinds’ network, hackers were able to insert malware into SolarWinds’ software. Due to the stealth employed, SolarWinds were unaware that they were distributing this malware. The malware involved allowed hackers to disable system services, transfer files and reboot infected PCs.
  • Shylock: A banking trojan which emerged in 2014, Shylock targeted websites based in the creative and digital industries. The authors of the Shylock trojan used a redirect script that sent victims to a malicious website. However, the team behind Shylock did not directly target these victims. Instead, they infiltrated a creative agency that designed website templates. This allowed the hackers to conceal their malicious script within legitimate website templates.

How to Protect Against Supply Chain Attacks

Defending against a supply chain attack is difficult due to the number of third parties involved. Each one that your organization works with has the potential to create a supply chain breach. However, by implementing the following measures you should enhance your protection:

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Online COVID-19 Scams to Be Aware of

Covid Scams, Hacking, malware, Ophtek, Security, Security Threats, , , ,
19
Jan 2021

 

COVID-19 has changed the way we live our lives and, not surprisingly, hackers are trying to take advantage of the fear factor behind the virus.

No aspect of life is off-limits to a hacker; if they can turn a situation to their advantage then they will. And this means that all sense of morals and ethics go out of the window. COVID-19, of course, has caused great fear and panic since it emerged, so it’s a subject people take very seriously. And it’s this investment in fear that hackers are looking to exploit. As with most online scams, if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is. But some people are willing to take a risk when COVID-19 is mentioned.

COVID-19 Scams to Look Out For

You should be aware of the usual online threats to look out for, but here are the specific COVID-19 scams you should be aware of at the moment:

  • COVID-19 Vaccine on the Dark Web: Now that vaccines have been approved in the fight against COVID-19, hackers have decided to exploit this demand. And that’s why it’s now possible to find listings for the vaccine on the dark web. Naturally, you should never buy medicine online unless this has been approved by your healthcare professional and the site is genuine. Very little on the Dark Web – an encrypted form of the internet – is genuine, so any marketplace listings that promise a COVID-19 vaccine should be dismissed. 
  • Fake COVID-19 Mapper: Everyone has been intrigued as to the behavior of COVID-19 and its spread, so the opportunity to monitor its spread is appealing. However, hackers have used this curiosity to help spread their malware. Researchers have discovered a PHP malware dropper which disguises itself as a piece of COVID-19 mapping software. Using a compromised website, hackers encourage visitors to download and install the mapping software. But all that is installed is software which downloads further malware. 

How to Combat COVID-19 Scams

The urge to click on sensational news and promises regarding COVID-19 is strong, but it’s crucial that you think long and hard before clicking. There are numerous COVID-19 scams in the digital wild and they are only going to get more sophisticated. As with all online scams and malware, make sure you practice the following:

  • Install all Updates: Malware often takes advantage of outdated software, so make sure that all your software is up to date. All you need to do is install all updates and upgrades as soon as they become available – your PC should automatically prompt you to install these when available.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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