Monster.com Malware Tags Another Site

bl8n8r writes "The first wave of problems for Monster.com came in the form of malware as recruiters cluelessly pointed trojaned Windows systems into Monster's database. The incident reportedly gleaned more than 1.6 million records from the job search site's database. The second incident followed two days later in the form of an infected Monster.com server pharming out malware by way of advertisements hosted on its websites. The latest incident now shows jobseekers using USAJobs are also at risk from the pharmed Monster trojan. The worst part is Monster.com seems to shrug it off with: 'As is the case with many companies that maintain large databases of information, Monster is from time to time subject to illegal attempts to extract information from its database. Despite ongoing analysis, the scope of this illegal activity is impossible to pinpoint.'"

Comments

NEVER use Windows as a server OS.

[Anonymous Coward]

If there's one thing we've been shown over and over and over and over and over and over again, it's that Windows is just not a suitable OS to use in a server environment.

The main problem is, as illustrated here, an insufficient level of security and quality. This isn't just a problem with the Windows itself. This is a problem with the other Microsoft products that are commonly used on Windows, including IIS and SQL Server. They're far too easily compromised, and fixes never come rapidly enough.

When high-quality products like Linux, Apache and PostgreSQL are available for free, there's really no reason to be using anything from Microsoft in a server environment. Hell, there are many reputable companies offering very affordable, and worthwhile, support for those products. And when the rare security issue does arise, a patch is usually available within the same day, if not within an hour or less.

Maybe someday IT managers and executives will realize that Windows is clearly not the optimal way to go. There are alternatives, and they are far better when it comes to security, quality, reliability, efficiency, and most importantly, cost.

Re:NEVER use Windows as a server OS.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget Solaris! And for a really secure network, you can always use OpenBSD. Thanks to their strenuous security audits, the OpenBSD developers have put out a product that is rock-solid, and nearly impenetrable.

Like their homepage states, "Only two remote holes in the default install, in more than 10 years!" That's a pretty remarkable achievement, when you consider that OpenBSD is a full-blown UNIX-like system, including a very capable, multiplatform kernel, a wide array of libraries, a great number of commands, as well as security-screened ports of software from other projects. When you have only two remote holes in a decade of development in millions of lines of C code, you know you're doing something right.

Here, I'll pinpoint the scope for them:

[Ant P.]

SELECT * FROM customers;
I'm curious to know how they could screw up a simple thing like database security to the point where some windows laptop on their network can just connect and do the above.

Re:Here, I'll pinpoint the scope for them:

[Valar]

Except that that is exactly NOT how the trojan works. I won't comment on the malware via ads issue, because I'm not familiar with the details (something you should try).

Here's how the trojan actually works.

A monster.com affiliated recruiter is someone who pays monster.com to have access to the section of the site where they can search the database of resumes and profiles with some fairly powerful search tools, and find candidates that might be qualified for open positions at their company. This trojan finds one of these people's computers and infects it. It sniffs out account and password information, which it then uses to log into the recruiting site. The trojan then makes a very broad search-- one that should make available all of the resume information. It then aggregates all of this information and uploads it to an external server, where presumably badies will parse it, and attempt to either make a spam mailing list probably.

The thing is, this information is all basically PUBLIC information. I mean, yes, it is supposed to be public only to companies that pay monster.com to show it to them, but it is your resume for goodness' sake. You know, that document that you send all over creation, hoping people will read it? Yeah.

So basically, I think the people whose accounts were comprised will noticed a slight increase in their spam traffic from having their email address crawled yet one more time.

Trollish submitter

[packetmon]

The worst part is Monster.com seems to shrug it off with: 'As is the case with many companies that maintain large databases of information Funny how they shrugged it off:

Earlier this month, Monster discovered [a] a malicious code that attempted to harvest stolen email addresses from its database and transfer them to a server in Ukraine. The hackers then sent out phishing emails that claimed to be prospective employers offering a work-from-home job that asked for access to the user's bank account. Monster responded by notifying these job seekers that their contact records had been downloaded illegally and is now working with law enforcement officials and the appropriate regulatory agencies [b]. Monster also revealed that this incident was not the first time the company's database had been the target of criminal activity.

The company says that to boost its security measures it is implementing new robust capabilities for worldwide monitoring and surveillance of site traffic, reviewing and tightening all site access policies and controls and launching a series of targeted initiatives to protect job seeker contact information.

Source

[a] Monster discovered: Did you note that Monster themselves noticed the infiltration. Wasn't posted to a full disclosure list which means they caught it on their own for a change. Give them that credit

[b] Monster initiated contacting those affected and working with LEA's. This didn't come to light in the same fashion as say with what happened at LinkedIn. Linkedin spurns bug bounty hunter. So why post such a trollish statement as "monster shrugged it off". There should be a mechanism to moderate those who post articles.

Re:Trollish submitter

[cyclone96]

Beyond everything that you nicely outline, when it comes to the USAJobs site they won't be able to "shrug it off" because of the connection to the government.

USAJobs was built under federal contract, and the government was slowly moving to requiring every federal position be applied for through USAJobs. That includes internal promotions, executives, new-hires...basically everyone who is not elected or an appointee. A lot of fairly high ranking career civil servants are in that database.

I'm guessing the government is going to be very harsh on this, as they typically are when a contractor screws up IT security.

BTW, most federal employees and managers hate USAJobs, since you are not allowed to interview anyone unless the computer ranks them highly when it runs it's resume search algorithm. I can't interview someone unless the computer spits it out. Potential hires (and internal promotions) have to figure out how to "fake out" the search algorithm so their resume gets through. I'd love to see it go away.

Re:They're not shrugging it off

[Harmonious Botch]

They're actually trying to fix it. But the problem is that they can't find the right people. Seems that everyone they try to hire thinks they are id thieves and hangs up on them.

pass the buck

[spyrochaete]

Monster really did shrug off this attack. They haven't responded to my email about whether my data was comprimised. All I got was an email saying that their databases had been breeched, followed by instructions on how *I* should surf the web safely. One of their recommendations was to contact companies by telephone instead of the web.

Re:Text of the email Monster sent out

[Craig Maloney]

I used this opportunity to cancel my Monster account. It wasn't doing anything for me anyway, but I figured that if enough people did it, they might take it seriously. You can read my account closure experience here. To say they shrugged this off as a small breach is an understatement. They didn't do anything real until the problem had escalated out of hand. If you feel as I do that Monster didn't act appropriately, I encourage you to also cancel your account. Maybe then they'll realize what their mistake was in handling this situation.