Mike and John are hackers that are very successful at their job. Mary is CFO at her midsize company and responsible for about 10 million dollars. The following is a fictional scene based on real methods that hackers use today:
At hacker’s headquarters:
“I think today is the day.” said John.
“Really, you think she’ll bite?” said Mike.
“I’ve been watching her home email for a while now. She is CFO of the company, so I figured she is worth the wait. I know her daughters’ game today and she promised her husband she would leave the office right at 5. So, if I time it right, I know I can do it.” Said John.
“Did you send the first email posing as her CEO this morning?” Said Mike.
“Yes, and she bought it, I just asked her to respond to the email so that I knew she received it, she never knew it was me and not the CEO. Now comes the harder part. At 4:45 I will send her a link to a file to review. She’ll be in such a hurry to get to her daughters’ game that she won’t think twice”
Back at Mary’s office…
It’s 4:45 and Mary is at the office about to leave. She was late to the last game and missed her daughters goal so there is no way she’s going to be late this time. At 4:45 email comes in from her CEO asking her to review this file and tell him if it’s worth looking into. Knowing that it’s her boss she doesn’t want to wait until the morning.
As she clicks on the link it asks her to sign into Office 365 again. “That’s weird” she thinks to herself, “I thought I was already logged in” but she was in a hurry, so she didn’t think twice about logging in again to look at the file.
Mary looked quickly at the file, it was just information about another sales pitch from someone wanting her business. She would tell the CEO tomorrow it wasn’t worth it but for now she really had to leave…
Back at hacker’s headquarters:
“She did it, we got her!!!!” exclaims John
“She logged in again? We got her credentials?” asked Mike
“Yep, hook line and sinker, we now have her login and she has no idea…. What should we do with it now, the possibilities are endless…
…I wonder how long until she realizes….”
I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences of the good you have found with technology.
Please email me at hspear@ezmicro.com with your thoughts.