back to article VC behemoth Insight Partners fears top-secret financial info swiped by cyber-miscreants

Insight Partners, a mega venture capital firm with more than $90 billion in funds under management, fears network intruders got their hands on internal sensitive data about employees, portfolio companies, investors, and more. In February, the biz informed folks that some miscreants had performed a "sophisticated social …

  1. Like a badger

    Secretive VC outfit has data ransacked? That's regrettable...

    ...said nobody.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Secretive VC outfit has data ransacked? That's regrettable...

      Ever.

      I look forward to the river they will cry.

      And damn you for beating me to the line. Have my congrats. -------------------------->>>>>>

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    a "sophisticated social engineering attack"

    Sure. This time it was a letter purporting to be from the NSA demanding the list of server logins and passwords to ensure that no server had been unduly accessed.

    Information that was sent by Reply To to an address of the type "honestNSAemployee@truensa.com.ru.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: a "sophisticated social engineering attack"

      Are you sure it wasn't Reply All?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: a "sophisticated social engineering attack"

      Can the words "honest" and "NSA" be used in the same sentence?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: a "sophisticated social engineering attack"

      More likely a fake lead on a distressed company they could fuck over and asset strip.

      VC’s never not gonna click on that link!

  3. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Splitting hairs doesn’t change the Bigger Picture in SMARTR Greater IntelAIgent Games

    Insight doesn't state if the information in question was stolen or just viewed.

    Whenever either sensitive and/or intended to be secured and secret information is there no question that the one [was it stolen] is as just as good as the other [was it viewed]

  4. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

    Look Past the Surface and You will See Why this Problem Never Ends

    The problem is NOT that Gary Grunt or Pauleen Peone were fooled by cybercrims.

    The root-cause problem is that the real Big Boss(es) can, and do, call up Gary and Pauleen, and demand that Gary/Pauleen take all sorts of security-compromising, company-policy-violating, GAAP-busting actions, such as, "Wire £10M from the employee retirement account to my personal checking account, and put it down as a loan," and, "Make my nephew, Freddy Fumblefingers administrator on host smytheco-gb-dc0."

    Should Gary/Pauleen ask for identity verification, a second signature on the order, or point out the Big Boss(es) is/are demanding Gary/Pauleen to commit a security policy violation and/or a crime, the Big Boss(es) thunder, "Don't you know who I am?! Carry out my orders imnediately, or I will have you fired! You'll never work again in this industry! You'll never work again in this city!!"

    Gary/Pauleen know the Big Boss(es) can, will, and have made this happen, and that Gary/Pauleen have effectively zero protection against this.

    So Gary/Pauleen carry out these orders immediately without question or pause for verification.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like