ZeusiLeaks Archives File 004: Earnings Season

In this ahort ZeusiLeaks file I’ll talk about why it’s not a good idea if you’re a public company and your PR agency has Zeus infected machines during earning season…

Quick reminder:

WikiLeaks, the largest leak of data the world has seen? Nonsense! Trojans like Zeus and SpyEye lurk on millions of personal, corporate and government PCs, stealing data 24 by 7. Everything you do online – either private or work related – is sent to a mothership half across the globe. Welcome to the ZeusiLeaks Archives, and look here for previous files.

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Helen McDuffie (don’t look her up, I masked the name) works for a big New York based PR agency. The agency provides public relations services to many of the NSYE traded customers. Lets be clear: this sort of PR agency is exposed to quarterly and annual financial reports weeks before they are submitted to Wall Street and become public knowledge, as they help the public companies deliver the right message in press releases and analyst briefings.

If this sort of data is leaked out before it becomes public knowledge, the SEC will be all over it. Inside information is like fixed matches in sport games: it breaks the rules of the game.

It’s earning season, and Helen is super busy. She needs to work on press releases with her peers in the corporate PR departments of NYSE’s largest companies. It’s no wonder that while logging into her gmail account she also had 3 other conversations.

Equally as busy is the Zeus Trojan on Helen’s machine… More specifically, the keylogger function that is capable of grabbing not just the immediate session Helen works on (the gmail login) but also all other parallel conversations, which are typically done in some sort of messenger program.

The three conversations are totally not related. Take this one: “he ignored the recall and sold it to you anyway, right? Sue him, go to people’s court!” – which seems like a sound advice. The bastard.

Then you have a more relevant piece: “Hi Jenn, Next week’s a bit busy for me? We’re heading into earnings season with our clients here”.

And there’s a Trojan on my machine.

Now comes my favourite part: “Below is an interesting blog post from NYSE regarding cyber security around earnings. As you may be aware, there have been several companies…” – the conversation is cut, but you have to admit it’s totally ironic :)