Kaspersky breach: No user info lifted, auditor confirms

No customer information was accessed during last weekend's breach of a Kaspersky website, an independent auditor has concluded, confirming the results of an internal investigation conducted earlier by members of the anti-virus firm.

The report, prepared by security expert David Litchfield, corroborated the findings of hackers in Romania last Saturday that a database on Kaspersky's American website for customer support was exposed. A forensic analysis showed none of the data was actually lifted, he said.

"The attacker's claim to be able to access customer data is correct and, as is apparent from the web server log files, the attacker did attempt to gain access to customer data however, the attempts failed," Litchfield was quoted in a statement issued by Kaspersky. "At no point was customer data accessed."

After the hackers revealed that a SQL injection vulnerability made the data susceptible to theft, several other attackers from various locations also unsuccessfully tried to access the information, Litchfield added.

Kaspersky closed the hole on Saturday around noon New York time, several hours after the hackers had blogged about it. The vulnerability had been present on the site for about 10 days, after administrators updated a portion of usa.kaspersky.com with new code that had not been properly reviewed for security bugs. Kaspersky has vowed to improve its website code vetting process to ensure the mistake is not repeated. ®