Interview with Digital Forensic Expert Investigator, Leon Mare of Expert Data Forensics
Expert analyzes video of Sands Corp. hack
Posted: Feb 18, 2014 10:25 PM PST
Updated: Feb 19, 2014 7:56 AM PST
Written by Ashley Conroy – bio | email
Leon Mare, an investigator with Expert Data Forensics, was shocked to see the level of information to which the hacker had access.
“If you’ve got a domain administrator, and the domain administrator has got the main routes throughout the whole organization, it means he is actually like God on their network,” he said.
The video has since been removed after YouTube said it was a violation of the company’s policy on depiction of harmful activities.
In the video, it shows a hacker clicking through personal data, and folders that say “password.”
In one click, it shows the hacker pulling up an entire data blueprint of Sands internal network.
“Oh my God,” Mare said. “This is the whole infrastructure network set up.”
Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the company has seen the video and says they’re investigating whether any customer or additional employee data may have been taken or used in some way.
The hack is political in nature and starts out attacking owner Sheldon Adelson’s stance on Iran and nuclear weapons.
In the video, a small graphic appears that says, “Do you really think that only your mail server has been taken down?”
Mare says investigators will likely look back at least 12 months of current and past employees searching through records and surveillance video inside the hotels.
“They’ll start from the top,” Mare said. “The security, the person in charge of the whole network infrastructure, the sub security and they’ll work it back down.”
Mare says it’s possible it came from an outside hacker, someone who could’ve infected Sands internal computer network with a virus and then accessed all of this information.
“They have to look at everything,” Mare said. “There’s no sleeping going on there now. They are 24/7 now.”
Sands Corporation also said they’re working with state and federal authorities investigating the hack.
Meantime, Reese also said in a statement that the company’s has made progress in restoring the internal computer systems in the U.S. to normal operation.
They also said they don’t believe the company’s core operating systems were impacted.
Copyright 2014 KVVU (KVVU Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.
