Tuesday, June 04, 2024

CORRECTION: Snowflake says it wasn't to blame for Ticketmaster breach — and its security pals agree

 Snowflake

Update 6/1/24: Hudson Rock has taken down their report that a hacker breached Snowflake to steal the data, shedding doubt on the hacker’s claims.

Snowflake says it wasn't to blame for Ticketmaster breach — and its security pals agree

A zoomed-in picture of a computer screen displaying a login window with a password typed in
(Image credit: Future)


Snowflake has claimed it isn't to blame for the major data breach that hit Ticketmaster, despite the company blaming it for security weaknesses.
Earlier this week, the ticket sales and distribution company reported a data breach in which sensitive information on more than 500 million users were allegedly stolen.
Filing a data breach form with the SEC, Ticketmaster said that it “identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing company data" - which an unnamed spokesperson later said related to Snowflake.
No evidence
Now, that company is denying these claims, and has brought two cybersecurity companies to back them up.

In a forum thread posted on June 2, Snowflake representatives said an preliminary investigation, conducted by both CrowdStrike and Mandiant, suggested this was a credential stuffing attack, and not a system vulnerability being exploited:

“Our key preliminary findings identified to date:

  • we have not identified evidence suggesting this activity was caused by a vulnerability, misconfiguration, or breach of Snowflake’s platform; 
  • we have not identified evidence suggesting this activity was caused by compromised credentials of current or former Snowflake personnel;
  • this appears to be a targeted campaign directed at users with single-factor authentication;
  • as part of this campaign, threat actors have leveraged credentials previously purchased or obtained through infostealing malware,” the announcement reads.
However, the researchers did find that one of the compromised accounts belonged to a former Snowflake employee. This was a demo account, and as such, did not contain sensitive data, or was able to grant access to such data.
“Demo accounts are not connected to Snowflake’s production or corporate systems,” the announcement concluded. 
“The access was possible because the demo account was not behind Okta or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), unlike Snowflake’s corporate and production systems.”

China's economic picture is 'better than you think': Ben Harburg

America's New D-Day: The Day Debt Doubled Growth / Western Capitalist Democracies France and UK are Drowning in Debt...U.S. even more

UPDATE 06.04.2024 

6-4-24: America's New D-Day: The Day Debt Doubled Growth - Navellier

Holger Zschaepitz

Holger Zschaepitz
In case you missed it: S&P Global has cut its rating on #France by one notch to AA-, below the credit rating level of the UK, citing a larger-than-expected budget deficit. The rating company projects France's debt will rise to 112% of GDP in the next three years, from 109% last year.
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Axios Takes on Pay-Walled Newsrooms...Make that America's Biggest News Companies

Here is reporter Sara Fischer's opening statement: 

"Newsrooms typically immersed in political coverage during a presidential election year are instead focused on saving their own businesses."



Choice of image used: Illustration of several ships made out of origami newspaper circling down a maelstrom. 

Media scrambles for survival ahead of 2024


Newsrooms typically immersed in political coverage during a presidential election year are instead focused on saving their own businesses.

Why it matters: 
  • Major restructurings, layoffs and newsroom overhauls are unusual for America's biggest news companies just months ahead of a highly anticipated presidential race.
  • With business headwinds growing stronger, news leaders know they can't afford to push off changes any longer
  • Subscription media growth has slowed as publishers struggle to replace customers who canceled their Trump-era subscriptions.

The Washington Post
CNN
The Wall Street Journal 
ABC News

Outline of massive changes to editorial structures

THE BIG PICTURE: 
More American media companies are focused on consumer revenue amid a weak advertising market and increasing threat from AI.

To do so, many are trying to recruit executives with experience managing paywalled newsrooms.


That often comes at the expense of diversity, and in many cases, includes a focus on British talent.

NO CAPTAIN ONBOARD