Hackers nip into celeb plastic surgery clinic, tuck away 'terabytes'

A plastic surgery clinic frequented by celebrities such as Katie Price has been targeted by hackers. London Bridge Plastic Surgery confirmed in a statement that it has been the victim of a cyber attack. Hackers using the name The Dark Overlord claimed to be behind the breach, which they said included stealing "terabytes" of …

[JimmyPage]

How on earth did the hackers get the crypto keys ...

that must have been needed to unlock such sensitive personal data ?

Is one of the questions that will be awaiting the CEO, given the victim lists access to high-quality legal advice.

[Tom 38]

Someone made a boob?

[John Brown (no body)]

I wonder if they run the laptops on LiPo batteries?

[Anonymous Coward]

Profits made, at worst change company name

Until an individuals data is recognized as a basic right enforced with the ferocity of our many moral laws why would a company bother with securing any data? Better to just claim measures are being taken to protect individuals data and then walk all the way to the bank with your own compensation and use other peoples money to start up yet another company.

Far better than getting caught breaking other laws or with contraband that would result in all assets and profits being seized as proceeds from crime.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Profits made, at worst change company name

High end businesses frequented by celebrities are successful because they are frequented by celebrities. It's word of mouth through the celeb network. You just need to get one in and be happy, then it snowballs so long as you keep them happy and believing the spiel. Reputation is everything. Changing the name of that sort of business is tantamount to starting all over again from scratch, albeit with the advantage of pre-existing contacts.

[tiggity]

oh no

Celebrities such as Katie Price ....

Is there anything she has not, in a tediously attention grabbing way, revealed lots of times already?

Hard to dredge up sympathy if all the surgery was cosmetic for ego reasons only (as opposed to worthy surgery "improving" burn / accident damage, congenital defects etc)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: oh no

In an 'ideal world' the great equalizer will crush all egos so they are equally crushed, thus equally worthy of pity.

[frank ly]

An obvious question

Why were terabytes of data, relating to very personal and potentially embarassing pictures, stored on a computer system that was connected to the internet? Was that actually necessary for the clinic to function?

[DontFeedTheTrolls]

Re: An obvious question

Depends what you mean by "connected to the Internet" There are very few networks that are not connected to "The Internet" these days.

I've worked on one isolated network in the last 20 years (truly isolated), all others have to varying degrees been connected to the internet and protected with proxies, firewalls, WAF's and other things.

Ultimately the protection does comes down to layers of security. The more layers, and the more diverse those layers are, generally the harder it is to compromise. But there is always still the possibility. And operating on truly isolated (air gapped) networks isn't generally all that practical.

And as someone else has pointed out, if they have stolen terabytes, its either taken weeks over the network, or it's been a more physical leak.

[Charles 9]

Re: An obvious question

Besides, as someone noted, SneakerNet may have been employed here given the data size, and SneakerNet is ALWAYS available, especially to a bribed insider.

[JimmyPage]

re: especially to a bribed insider.

with the added complication that the people that could are probably paid peanuts.

[Christoph]

Re: An obvious question

A friend's work computer is, so I understand, totally isolated from the net, and will be so until its data storage is physically destroyed when it's no longer used. But then he works in Cheltenham.

[ecofeco]

Re: An obvious question

Well frank ly, if you knew the Scrooge like egos of these people, the answer would be obvious.

They are asshats.

[Gordon Pryra]

terabytes?

So a physical download then, unless their network boys have been asleep for a few days....

[ecofeco]

Re: terabytes?

That would be the most likely scenario. No network boys at all, deed done over the course of a few days.

[Mark 85]

Re: terabytes?

Or, more likely, the network lads are in India and only pop in once a month or so, depending on the terms of the contract.

[John Smith 19]

"The Dark Overlord"

Mandlescum?

I thought the only instruments he liked to play with were statutory.

But, yeah. Terabytes of data?

Someone's got Gb internet in London? GB of data being copied off their server(s) didn't flag up alarm bells?

Lucky ba***rds.

[Robert Moore]

What a bunch of boobs.

Couldn't resist. :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Sick

Where on the dark net can we see said terabytes of post-op lady-bits? Asking for a friend.

[h3nb45h3r]

Re: Sick

Who said they were lady-bits?

[Nolveys]

Re: Sick

can we see post-op lady-bits?

I think that stuff goes in a dumpster out back.

[jake]

Re: Sick

Not a dumpster. An incinerator. (I've done a lot of work for hospitals.)

But yeah, who was the numpty that allowed access in the first place?

[Anonymous Coward]

Big 'uns

That 'splains the terabytes.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't imagine ANYTHING less sexually....

....titillating then the thought of seeing Katie Price in any more detail.

Can we start a crowdfunding thing to get them to NOT release any of her bits..

[jake]

Re: I can't imagine ANYTHING less sexually....

Indeed. Zappa said it best:

"A fine little girl, she waits for me / She's as plastic as she can be

She paints her face with plastic goo / And wrecks her hair with some shampoo"

From Plastic People, track one on the album Absolutely Free by The Mothers of Invention ... and THAT was written back in 1967! Frank always was prophetic ... as much as he hated the idea ;-)

[Rainer]

Time

It looks like you could transfer out about 80GBytes per day - on 1Mbit/s.

If their pipe is big enough, they wouldn't notice that.

When nobody is in the office, you could probably crank that up quite a bit.

So, if the access lasted for a couple of days or weekends, TBytes is not impossible.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Bulgarian Airbags???

No mention either in the article or in the comments. I will have to consider cancelling my subscription.