RSA: Cyberattack could put customers at risk - CNET

▤ Summary

Information about RSAs SecurID authentication tokens used by millions of people, including government and bank employees, was stolen during an "extremely sophisticated cyberattack," putting customers relying on them to secure their networks at risk, the company said today. "Recently, our security systems identified an extremely sophisticated cyberattack in progress being mounted against RSA," Executive Chairman Art Coviello, wrote in an open letter to customers, which was posted on the companys Web site. The tokens are commonly used in financial transactions and government agencies; one source who asked to remain anonymous said SecurID users in those sensitive areas were scrambling to figure out what to do in light of the breach. RSA has historically kept their algorithm secret, but that is not a good defense against a sophisticated attacker who could get a software version of the token or the back-end server and reverse engineer the code, Ganesan said. Advanced Persistent Attacks often target source code and other information useful in espionage and involve knowledge of the companys network, key employees, and workings.

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