To keep you from suspense, we’ll go ahead and tell you that the attack didn’t compromise any data affecting the 2020 census and the perpetrators weren’t able to maintain access thanks to their firewall. That said, it doesn’t appear the Census Bureau handled the attack very well.
- The zero-day flaw was discovered in December 2019. The hack happened the next month, despite fixes already being available.
- The attack happened through remote access servers, but they were not scanned for vulnerabilities.
- There was no security event management tool set up to alert admins of suspicious activity, so they were not aware of for two weeks.
- The Census Bureau failed to keep adequate logs, which made the investigation that much more difficult.
The cyberattack on the Census Bureau could have been much worse, but it didn’t need to happen in the first place, which is where an organization like Petronella Tech comes in. We cover all facets of cybersecurity, and would love to talk to you about how we can prevent anything happening to your company.