Deloitte hack
A couple weeks back we learned that Deloitte had been the latest mega organization to suffer a cyberattack. At the time, I wrote this:
It always seems like when a scandal hits a huge company, they play it down, only to discover a week or two later that the bad event was worse than they thought. If a professional services firm suffers a breach because someone failed to use two-factor authentication, I think a fair number of people would question everything they had to say about the situation.
Here’s The Guardian right on cue this morning:
The hack into the accountancy giant Deloitte compromised a server that contained the emails of an estimated 350 clients, including four US government departments, the United Nations and some of the world’s biggest multinationals, the Guardian has been told.
Sources with knowledge of the hack say the incident was potentially more widespread than Deloitte has been prepared to acknowledge and that the company cannot be 100% sure what was taken.
The report states that the U.S. Departments of State, Energy, Homeland Security, and Defense were exposed, as well as the Postal Service, National Institutes of Health, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Fifa. Plus, “four global banks, three airlines, two multinational car manufacturers, energy giants and big pharmaceutical companies,” and a partridge in a pear tree.
In response, Deloitte is sticking by its original “Nothing is fucked here, Dude” stance:
Deloitte did not deny any of these clients had information in the system that was the target of the hack, but it said none of the companies or government departments had been “impacted”. It said “the number of email messages targeted by the attacker was a small fraction of those stored on the platform”.
The Guardian‘s sources say Deloitte’s “public position belied concern within the company about exactly what had happened and why.” Which, I believe, is the express purpose of corporate PR offices.
I don’t know where this story goes next, but let’s check back in two weeks from now.
Change tax law!
Legislative wizard Donald J. Trump is shouting ideas again:
Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country? Change tax law!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2017
This is highly technical policy making by Donald Trump standards, so I’ll go out on a limb and say that he doesn’t know that the NFL abandoned its tax-exempt status in 2015.
Previously, on Going Concern…
In Open Items, someone is asking about a bad grade in a non-accounting class.
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- New essay explains why Generation X feels ‘bone-deep, almost hallucinatory panic about money’
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- IKEA Just Launched A Pet Furniture Collection
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