02.25.10
Lousy Tech Support and How Baidu was Hacked
Remember last month when Baidu was hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army?
Well, Domain Name Wire explains the hi-tech coding techniques used to perpertrate the crime:
Here’s how Baidu alleges the hacker got access to one of the world’s most popular web sites domain name account in under an hour:
1. Hacker starts online chat session with Register.com representative, claiming to be an agent of Baidu.
2. Register.com representative asks hacker to provide verification information. Hacker provides invalid information, but Register.com goes ahead and e-mails a security code to the email address it has on file for Baidu anyway.
3. The hacker doesn’t have access to that e-mail address, so he/she relays a bogus security code to the Register.com representative via chat. Baidu claims the representative didn’t bother to compare the code to the actual one.
4. Hacker asks Register.com representative to change email address on file to antiwahabi2008@gmail.com, and representative does.
5. Hacker now uses “forgot password” link at Register.com to request the username and password to the account. Hacker can then log in and change the name servers.
Baidu is currently suing Register.com but they could have simply avoided this whole debacle by paying a few extra dollars a year for increased domain security. After all they do rely on their website being available for their core business. But it’s easier to blame it on the idiocy of a Register.com tech support guy.
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