Home Depot Blames Windows for Their Massive Security Hack

[dgstorm]

In case you missed it, Home Depot is the latest company to be embroiled in a massive hacking scandal like the Target fiasco from last year. Just a few weeks ago, Home Depot revealed that their database was breached by hackers resulting in the theft of over 56 million credit cards and over 53 million emails.

They recently came out blaming an executive's Windows machine for the data breach, and the company quickly purchased a bunch of MacBooks and iPhones for their executives to "fix" the issue. Here's a quote with more of the details,

On September 2nd, the Secret Service told Home Depot that hackers were already selling credit card numbers on the black market, which were traced back to Home Depot.

The company managed to buy some of those credit cards and started its investigation, discovering a few days later that malware had been deleted from a store computer. At that point, unsure about what information had been compromised, Home Depot “bought two dozen new, secure iPhones and MacBooks for senior executives, who referred to their new devices as ‘Bat phones.’”

It’s not clear what vulnerability in Windows the hackers exploited, but Microsoft patched it after the breach began. However, that was too late to stop the Home Depot hackers, who “were able to move throughout Home Depot’s systems and over to the company’s point-of-sale systems as if they were Home Depot employees with high-level permissions,” after using the vulnerability to move from “a peripheral third-party vendor system and the company’s more secure main computer network.” ~ BGR

Perhaps their security protocols may be more to blame than the particular OS on the hacked device. What do you think?

 

[leeshor]

Definitely a policy and procedures issue, That Executive dug his own hole. Blaming Windows is a copout.

 

[johnomaz]

$20 says they'll be running bootcamp with Windows 8 on it (or Windows 7, either or...). Talk about passing the buck. Stop using it for personal stuff and keep it work related and you won't have a problem. I've ran the built in Windows Defender antivirus stuff in Windows 8 since it was released and have never had a problem and ya, I don't stay away from unsafe sites at all. This Home Depot issue is also why my debit card was replaced which was a huge inconvenience especially when I had no idea it was coming.

 

[MissionImprobable]

Sounds like major lapses in security protocols, and worse still the people at the top think that going to Apple will magically fix everything. They really have zero comprehension as a company as to what's going on from their statement. There are usually multiple vulnerabilities shown when all the details of these attacks come to light.

I can tell you one company that I won't be using a credit card with anytime soon.

 

[xeene]

I used to work for them for over a decade. They are so behind the times on their back end it's sad. When everything else was running windows 7, they were using windows nt and Unix. But they were ones of the first to implement self checkouts and eliminate a dozen or so cashier positions per store.

 

[pc747]

Apple's happy.... they like "Yup it was windows"

 

[Slowpok22]

Have to blame it on someone, ashame the execs can't take responsibility for their own actions/missteps, and Microsoft is an easy excuse.

 

[JohnDroid]

Apple's happy.... they like "Yup it was windows"

I love this gif

 

[Ohyea!]

I used to work for them for over a decade. They are so behind the times on their back end it's sad. When everything else was running windows 7, they were using windows nt and Unix. But they were ones of the first to implement self checkouts and eliminate a dozen or so cashier positions per store.

I also worked for Home Depot. It was the worst job I ever had. I use to dread going to work the night before. I would get that awful feeling in my stomach every time. Just a horrible experience. Then one day I said screw this and walked out mid shift never to return.

 

[xeene]

I also quit in 2008 when economy crashed. They were laying off all the people with experience who spent years if not decades working for them and making decent wage.

 

[hradek422]

And all I can do, is hope everyone watches this video, because when they said "Batphone" this was all I could think of.