Major entertainment company hit by an SMB worm with destructive wiper components (2014)
US-CERT alert TA14-353A describes an SMB worm tool used against a major entertainment company that spreads by brute-forcing Windows SMB shares.
What happened
- The tool includes destructive components that overwrite drive data and the master boot record, which can leave machines non-operational with irrecoverable data.Alert TA14-353A: Targeted Destructive Malware
The failure pattern
Watch the pattern: Insufficient segmentation lets a foothold spread
Safeguards that address it
CollectSEA's engineering analysis of what would have prevented or contained this failure.
- Segment and restrict credential spreadLimit lateral movement over file-sharing protocols and protect privileged credentials.
- Offline backups and mass-deletion detectionKeep offline backups of critical servers and alert on large-scale overwrites or boot-record changes.
Related standards
CollectSEA's mapping through this incident's failure pattern; not an official determination by the standards bodies.
Building something similar?
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