Cyber-Attack on Major US Bookseller

guest · Oct 15, 2020

Barnes & Noble hit by cyberattack that exposed customer data
October 14, 2020
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...it-by-cyberattack-that-exposed-customer-data/

U.S. Bookstore giant Barnes & Noble has disclosed that they were victims of a cyberattack that may have exposed customers' data.

Barnes & Noble is the largest brick-and-mortar bookseller in the United States, with over 600 bookstores in fifty states. The bookseller also operated the Nook Digital, which is their eBook and e-Reader platform.
Nook outage since the weekend
Since October 10th, users have been complaining on Nook's Facebook page and Twitter that they could no longer access their library of purchased eBooks and magazine subscriptions. When attempting to do so online or on their Nook, the library was coming up blank or could not log into bn.com.
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“Our systems are back online in our stores and on BN.com, and we are investigating the cause. Please be assured that there is no compromise of customer payment details, which are encrypted and tokenized."

According to GoodReader, store managers had told them that Barnes & Noble had a "virus in their networks" that started in the corporate offices and eventually made its way to the stores. Once in the stores, it affected the cashiers and prevented orders from being placed.
Barnes & Noble discloses cyberattack
In an email sent to customers late Wednesday night and seen by BleepingComputer, Barnes & Noble has disclosed that they suffered a cyberattack on October 10th, 2020.

As part of this attack, threat actors gained access to corporate systems utilized by the company.
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In a list of frequently asked questions, Barnes & Noble states that no payment details have been exposed but are unsure at this time if the hackers accessed other personal information.
They do admit that email addresses, billing addresses, shipping addresses, and purchase history were exposed on the hacked systems.
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guest · Oct 17, 2020

Barnes & Noble Hack: A Reading List for Phishers and Crooks
October 15, 2020
https://threatpost.com/barnes-noble-hack-phishers-crooks/160148/

This story has been updated on Oct. 15 with researcher reactions
Barnes & Noble is warning that it has been hacked, potentially exposing personal data for shoppers – and offering phishers an early holiday gift.
The book purveyor sent out emailed notices to customers very late Wednesday night and in the wee hours of Thursday morning, warning that a cyberattack happened on October 10, “which resulted in unauthorized and unlawful access to certain Barnes & Noble corporate systems.”

The decision not to encrypt personal data could be a problem for the company, according to Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4.
“For the organization itself, this is liable to be a costly issue as many data breaches are,” he told Threatpost.
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Early Holiday for Scammers
Meanwhile, many took to Twitter to express frustration with the late-night email notices, and to express consternation over what in the database could be of use to hackers.

Woke up to an email from Barnes and Noble saying they were hacked. What do hackers want with my reading list? They're going to find a whole lot of @exlarson but I happily share that information with anyone who will listen.
— Spirit Bear (@SpiritbearNY) October 15, 2020

On the plus side, the company was proactive in notifying consumers, Kron said.
“The organization did well in notifying potential victims very quickly,” he told Threatpost. “[...] However, it does provide a reasonable amount of information for the victims. It seems likely that if additional information is discovered, the victims will be notified.”
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guest · Oct 23, 2020

B&N cyberattack calls into question the retailer’s network segmentation practices
October 21, 2020
https://www.scmagazine.com/home/sec...he-retailers-business-segmentation-practices/

An apparent ransomware infection at Barnes & Noble, which impacted the retailer’s corporate systems and disabled in-store point-of-sale terminals, has led to speculation over whether a lack of business network segmentation could have assisted the malware’s propagation.

The Oct. 10 attack also prevented users of the Nook digital reader from accessing content and services, serving as a reminder to the corporate world of the unique damage that ransomware can deal to companies specializing in consumer-facing content delivery and distribution.
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“Certainly, properly configured security segmentation is designed to help prevent intruders from moving laterally throughout a network,” said Jonathan Reiber, senior director of cybersecurity strategy and policy at AttackIQ.
“Additionally, the likelihood that a compromised consumer device spread to the server, then down to the POS systems is very low,” Carder added. “Without more data, the initial compromise likely happened at the back-end infrastructure that supports the eReader.”
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Getting segmentation right
Another common segmentation issue relates to VPN remote access, Clements added. “In many organizations improper VPN access controls give normal users access to the entire network, but even if access to sensitive segmented networks has been restricted to administrators only, the flood of recent VPN server vulnerabilities can give attackers a direct pathway to stealing administrator passwords and access.”

Indeed, there is also conjecture that the Barnes & Noble attack may have been carried out by exploiting a vulnerability in Pulse Connect Secure VPN servers (CVE-2019-11510), after Bad Packets reported that the retailer failed to patched the flaw for months.
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