News & Events
BR's TraceSecurity gets mention in Fortune hacking article
2TheAdvocate.com, 05/03/2005
Business Headlines for May 3, 2005
Local startup company TraceSecurity Inc. was mentioned in a Fortune magazine article about the escalating threat hackers pose to U.S. banks and companies.
Sensitive information on millions of customers stored in databases and personnel files are being pillaged by hackers, the article said.
The article, dated Monday, quotes Jim Stickley, chief technical officer of TraceSecurity in Baton Rouge. The company is hired by banks to test their vulnerability by hacking into their systems.
Stickley's main job is to break into banks, posing as a fire marshal, bug exterminator or worker who has stepped out for a smoke break. Once inside, he helps himself to backup tapes, places keystroke detectors - good for capturing user names and passwords - on workers' computers, or installs a Wi-Fi access point in the server room, allowing him to get all the data he wants as he lounges in his laptop-equipped van in the parking lot, the article said.
Bank of America recently reported that it lost sensitive information on 1.2 million customers after it shipped to its backup data center non-encrypted tapes on customers. The tapes, shipped by commercial air, never arrived.
"Everything you want to protect is on those tapes," Stickley is quoted saying. "If they're not encrypted, strike No. 1. Then they're using commercial carriers to transfer the tapes, and they're like, 'Everybody does that.' But that's not the case. It's not like it's a surprise that stuff can be stolen from commercial airlines. I think there were several bad choices they made there that could have been avoided."
TraceSecurity CEO Pete Stewart, said: "It is exciting for young company like TraceSecurity to be mentioned in a national publication, even if it is only small component of the story."