Ipremier Dos Attack
Introduction
On January 12th, 2007 at 4:31am, Bob Turley, CIO of the iPremier Company, received a panicked phone call from his IT operations staff. Their external facing website was “locked up” and could not be accessed by anyone, including their customers. iPremier is a web-based business that generates revenue through solely processing online orders. While the web server was down, the company could not accept any new orders or allow their customers to view their products. An inadequately third-party managed and configured router/firewall allowed hackers to execute a DOS (Denial of Service) attack on iPremier. I recommend purchasing a new firewall solution that will be managed and configured by the Company’s IT staff internally. This level of control will allow the company to tailor the level of security they desire and give them the ability to mitigate threats accordingly.
Summary of Facts
At 4:31am on January 12th, 2007, Bob Turley (CIO of iPremier) received a panicked call from Leon Ledbetter in operations. Leon stated that the Company’s website was down and that customers could not access the site. He also stated emails containing the phrase “ha ha” were being received by the mail server. The Company’s technical operations team leader, Joanne Ripley called Mr. Turley at 4:39am stating she could not access their equipment from the line to their office and indicated she was driving toward the Qdata co-located facility. She confirmed that Qdata (their hosting company) claims there was not a connectivity issue in or out of the building. Ripley stated the she would try to restart the web server once she reached the facility and confirmed she had an outdated copy of emergency procedures in her vehicle. Shortly after Mr. Turley hung up with Ripley he received a call from Warren Spangler, VP of business development. Mr. Spangler was concerned with the affect on the Company’s stock price, calling the police or FBI, and basic PR issues resulting from the incident.
On January 12th, 2007 at 4:31am, Bob Turley, CIO of the iPremier Company, received a panicked phone call from his IT operations staff. Their external facing website was “locked up” and could not be accessed by anyone, including their customers. iPremier is a web-based business that generates revenue through solely processing online orders. While the web server was down, the company could not accept any new orders or allow their customers to view their products. An inadequately third-party managed and configured router/firewall allowed hackers to execute a DOS (Denial of Service) attack on iPremier. I recommend purchasing a new firewall solution that will be managed and configured by the Company’s IT staff internally. This level of control will allow the company to tailor the level of security they desire and give them the ability to mitigate threats accordingly.
Summary of Facts
At 4:31am on January 12th, 2007, Bob Turley (CIO of iPremier) received a panicked call from Leon Ledbetter in operations. Leon stated that the Company’s website was down and that customers could not access the site. He also stated emails containing the phrase “ha ha” were being received by the mail server. The Company’s technical operations team leader, Joanne Ripley called Mr. Turley at 4:39am stating she could not access their equipment from the line to their office and indicated she was driving toward the Qdata co-located facility. She confirmed that Qdata (their hosting company) claims there was not a connectivity issue in or out of the building. Ripley stated the she would try to restart the web server once she reached the facility and confirmed she had an outdated copy of emergency procedures in her vehicle. Shortly after Mr. Turley hung up with Ripley he received a call from Warren Spangler, VP of business development. Mr. Spangler was concerned with the affect on the Company’s stock price, calling the police or FBI, and basic PR issues resulting from the incident.
References: Allen, J., Gabbard, D., May, C., Hayes, E., & Sledge, C. (2003). Outsourcing managed security services (No. CMU/SEI-SIM-012). CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIV PITTSBURGH PA SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INST. Applegate, L. M., Austin, R. D., & Soule, D. L. (2009). Corporate information strategy and management: Text and cases. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Lemon, J. (2002, February). Resisting SYN Flood DoS Attacks with a SYN Cache. In BSDCon (Vol. 2002, pp. 89-97).