Six million of Verizon 's US customers had their personal and account information exposed Attack.Databreach , including PIN numbers . Verizon Communications suffered a major data leak Attack.Databreach due to a misconfigured cloud server that exposed Attack.Databreach data on 6 million of its customers . The leak was the result of its third-party provider NICE Systems incorrectly configuring Verizon 's cloud-based file repository housed in an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket on NICE 's cloud server , according to UpGuard , which issued a report on the breach today . Verizon customer names , addresses , account information , including account personal identification numbers ( PINs ) , were compromised Attack.Databreach . UpGuard in its data estimated that up to 14 million customer records were exposed Attack.Databreach , but Verizon stated that data on 6 million of its users was affected . In one file alone , there were 6,000 PINs that were publicly exposed Attack.Databreach , according to Dan O'Sullivan , a cyber resilience analyst for UpGuard . What 's unique about this leak Attack.Databreach is that it was not just personal data that was publicly exposed Attack.Databreach but also PINs , according to O'Sullivan . `` The PINs are used to identify a customer to a customer care person , '' O'Sullivan says , noting that an attacker could impersonate the user by using the PIN and then gain access to that individual 's account . Verizon issued a statement acknowledging the public exposure Attack.Databreach of its customer data , but stressed that no loss or theft Attack.Databreach of Verizon or Verizon customer information occurred . The telecom giant also noted : `` To the extent PINs were included in the data set , the PINs are used to authenticate a customer calling our wireline call center , but do not provide online access to customer accounts , '' Verizon stated . `` An employee of one of our vendors put information into a cloud storage area and incorrectly set the storage to allow external access , '' Verizon said . How it Went Down NICE was hired to help Verizon improve its residential and small business wireline self-service call center portal , according to Verizon 's statement . As part of this project , NICE needed certain data that included a limited amount of personal and cell phone number information . None of the information stored for the project included social security numbers , according to Verizon . Meanwhile , on June 8 , UpGuard 's cyber risk research director Chris Vickery came across the AWS S3 data repository and its subdomain `` verizon-sftp . '' The repository held six folders with titles spanning `` Jan-2017 '' to `` June-2017 '' and a number of other files with a .zip format . Vickery was able to fully download the repository because it was configured to be publicly accessible to anyone entering the S3 URL . Following the discovery , UpGuard contacted Verizon on June 13 to inform the telecom giant of the data leakage Attack.Databreach and then on June 22 the exposure was sealed up , according to UpGuard 's report . `` There was a fairly long duration of time before it was fixed , which is troubling , '' O'Sullivan says . Verizon is not the first company to encounter data leakage Attack.Databreach as a result of permissions set to public rather than private on Amazon 's S3 bucket . Earlier this year , UpGuard also discovered a similar situation that involved the Republican National Committee ( RNC ) , which left millions of voter records exposed Attack.Databreach on the cloud account . As in the Verizon case , the RNC relied on a third party vendor to handle its cloud storage needs and it too used Amazon 's AWS S3 . That third-party also improperly set the database to public rather than private . `` The number one thing to keep in mind if you are a CISO is evaluating your third-party vendors . You can have the best security in the world and the best visibility into your systems , but if you pass it onto a third-party vendor without checking out how well they handle their security , then you have done that all in vain , '' O'Sullivan says . `` Verizon did not own the server that was involved here , but it will own the consequences . '' Rich Campagna , CEO of Bitglass , stressed the importance of security teams ensuring services used are configured securely . `` This massive data leak Attack.Databreach could have been avoided by using specific data-centric security tools , which can ensure appropriate configuration of cloud services , deny unauthorized access Attack.Databreach , and encrypt sensitive data at rest , '' Campagna said in a statement .

Six million of Verizon 's US customers had their personal and account information exposed Attack.Databreach , including PIN numbers . Verizon Communications suffered a major data leak Attack.Databreach due to a misconfigured cloud server that exposed Attack.Databreach data on 6 million of its customers . The leak was the result of its third-party provider NICE Systems incorrectly configuring Verizon 's cloud-based file repository housed in an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket on NICE 's cloud server , according to UpGuard , which issued a report on the breach today . Verizon customer names , addresses , account information , including account personal identification numbers ( PINs ) , were compromised Attack.Databreach . UpGuard in its data estimated that up to 14 million customer records were exposed Attack.Databreach , but Verizon stated that data on 6 million of its users was affected . In one file alone , there were 6,000 PINs that were publicly exposed Attack.Databreach , according to Dan O'Sullivan , a cyber resilience analyst for UpGuard . What 's unique about this leak Attack.Databreach is that it was not just personal data that was publicly exposed Attack.Databreach but also PINs , according to O'Sullivan . `` The PINs are used to identify a customer to a customer care person , '' O'Sullivan says , noting that an attacker could impersonate the user by using the PIN and then gain access to that individual 's account . Verizon issued a statement acknowledging the public exposure Attack.Databreach of its customer data , but stressed that no loss or theft Attack.Databreach of Verizon or Verizon customer information occurred . The telecom giant also noted : `` To the extent PINs were included in the data set , the PINs are used to authenticate a customer calling our wireline call center , but do not provide online access to customer accounts , '' Verizon stated . `` An employee of one of our vendors put information into a cloud storage area and incorrectly set the storage to allow external access , '' Verizon said . How it Went Down NICE was hired to help Verizon improve its residential and small business wireline self-service call center portal , according to Verizon 's statement . As part of this project , NICE needed certain data that included a limited amount of personal and cell phone number information . None of the information stored for the project included social security numbers , according to Verizon . Meanwhile , on June 8 , UpGuard 's cyber risk research director Chris Vickery came across the AWS S3 data repository and its subdomain `` verizon-sftp . '' The repository held six folders with titles spanning `` Jan-2017 '' to `` June-2017 '' and a number of other files with a .zip format . Vickery was able to fully download the repository because it was configured to be publicly accessible to anyone entering the S3 URL . Following the discovery , UpGuard contacted Verizon on June 13 to inform the telecom giant of the data leakage Attack.Databreach and then on June 22 the exposure was sealed up , according to UpGuard 's report . `` There was a fairly long duration of time before it was fixed , which is troubling , '' O'Sullivan says . Verizon is not the first company to encounter data leakage Attack.Databreach as a result of permissions set to public rather than private on Amazon 's S3 bucket . Earlier this year , UpGuard also discovered a similar situation that involved the Republican National Committee ( RNC ) , which left millions of voter records exposed Attack.Databreach on the cloud account . As in the Verizon case , the RNC relied on a third party vendor to handle its cloud storage needs and it too used Amazon 's AWS S3 . That third-party also improperly set the database to public rather than private . `` The number one thing to keep in mind if you are a CISO is evaluating your third-party vendors . You can have the best security in the world and the best visibility into your systems , but if you pass it onto a third-party vendor without checking out how well they handle their security , then you have done that all in vain , '' O'Sullivan says . `` Verizon did not own the server that was involved here , but it will own the consequences . '' Rich Campagna , CEO of Bitglass , stressed the importance of security teams ensuring services used are configured securely . `` This massive data leak Attack.Databreach could have been avoided by using specific data-centric security tools , which can ensure appropriate configuration of cloud services , deny unauthorized access Attack.Databreach , and encrypt sensitive data at rest , '' Campagna said in a statement .

One of the biggest and most popular social networking platforms , Snapchat , has once again become the center of attention . But this time , it is for all the wrong reasons with tweets and hashtags ( # Uninstall_Snapchat and # BoycottSnapchat ) urging people to get rid of the app . Apparently , the outrage started in India , after one of Snapchat ’ s former employees said that the CEO of the company had no intention to expand the business to India since the Snapchat platform is meant for “ rich people ” and not for “ poor countries ” like India and or Spain . Enraged India first reacted on Twitter , and after that , the hacktivist group Anonymous India claimed that they were responsible for 1.7 million Snapchat users ’ data leak Attack.Databreach . The hacking group has supposedly found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability vulnerabilities in Snapchat ’ s systems and managed to steal Attack.Databreach 1.7 million user data and leaked Attack.Databreach them on the dark web . It seems that the hackers belong to one of the many bug bounty hunting groups that are finding Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability flaws in systems of big companies in exchange for money . It appears that the flaw in Snapchat ’ s security was discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability last year , but never reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to the authorities . Now , the same flaw was used to steal Snapchat users data , reports Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability DailyMail . The hackers are also demanding that the CEO apologize or an intensive strike against Snapchat will be launched . So far , Snapchat itself hasn ’ t confirmed any data leaks Attack.Databreach and we ’ re still waiting for an official comment from the social media giant . So far , the company has claimed that the allegations are ridiculous and that the app is available worldwide for everyone who wishes to use it . A spokesperson for the company has denied everything that Snapchat is being accused of . Despite this , the outrage on the social media continues , and many are still persuading others to boycott the application , or better yet – to completely uninstall it . The ratings of the company have dropped down fast , and the app is currently rated with only one star on the Apple ’ s App Store , while before this ‘ incident ’ it had a full five-star rating . And when it comes to Google Play Store , the app has a four-star rating at the time of writing . It ’ s unknown what will happen with the company now that their reputation has dropped down so dramatically , but whatever they decide to do to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability this , they better do it fast .