Former cyber executive turned whistleblower accuses IBM of covering up several data breaches; plus, OpenAI is still working on that ‘super app’
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What is the background of the IBM breach whistleblower case?
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A former IBM cybersecurity executive accused the company of getting hacked three times in the previous decade by foreign governments and then covering up the breaches.
How did William Barlow describe the alleged Chinese hack of IBM’s core network?
In a lawsuit unsealed this week but filed back in 2020. William Barlow, who was IBM's vice president of Threat Intelligence until August of twenty nineteen, said IBM concluded Chinese hackers breached its core network between twenty thirteen and twenty sixteen, but that the company then covered up the breaches and never disclosed them. Barlow also said at least two IBM subsidiaries were also breached, and that IBM covered up those breaches as well. Barlow alleged in his complaint that IBM's core network was routinely hacked by foreign state actors and others, adding that data was frequently stolen and government agencies were never notified. While the alleged breaches date back more than a decade, the news shows that cyber attacks, even those affecting large public tech companies, such as IBM, sometimes never get disclosed, either to the public or to the relevant government authorities.
IBM is a major cybersecurity vendor to the US federal government, which makes the alleged concealment especially significant. In the last few years, several data breach notification laws have been passed to counter this problem. Bloomberg first reported on the lawsuit.
Why is IBM’s alleged concealment of breaches significant for government contracts?
IBM spokesperson Mickey Carver declined to answer specific questions about the lawsuit and the underlying accusations. Instead, Carver told TechCrunch, this complaint was filed six years ago, and the US Department of Justice declines to intervene. IBM is confident that our actions followed the letter of the law. No. In particular, Barlow said IBM was among several victims of a hacking campaign carried out by APT ten, a Chinese government linked group that then FBI director Christopher Ray said had targeted a who's who of the global economy when its members were indicted in twenty eighteen. The hackers broke into both the company's network and the data it maintained there in partnership with ATT. Barlow alleged that in March of twenty seventeen.
Intelligence officials from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom are
What evidence does the lawsuit claim IBM failed to log and disclose?
The so called Five Eyes Alliance warned IBM of the breach, which prompted an internal investigation. According to the complaint, the investigation concluded that APT ten potentially breached IBM's network more than fifty six thousand times between twenty thirteen and twenty sixteen. Crucially. The company said it could not investigate further because it had not kept logs of who accessed its network and when. A basic security practice. IBM then allegedly failed to alert any authorities or the U.S. government. one of its main customers.
Which IBM subsidiaries were reportedly breached and how were they handled?
As the complaint reads, as IBM and ATT's core networks infrastructure is archaic, hackers have been able to gain access to the system on numerous occasions and can roam almost anywhere undetected. The attackers have compromised and or accessed nearly four hundred compromised accounts and almost two hundred total systems and servers across every IBM business unit, eighteen countries and multiple IBM products. Jason Brown, a lawyer representing Barlow, told TechCrunch that his firm is looking forward to aggressively litigating the matter. Brown said, You can't sell cybersecurity to the federal government while allegedly having these security problems within your own company.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the background of the IBM breach whistleblower case?
0:02–0:54
2
How did William Barlow describe the alleged Chinese hack of IBM’s core network?
0:54–2:16
3
Why is IBM’s alleged concealment of breaches significant for government contracts?
2:16–3:12
4
What evidence does the lawsuit claim IBM failed to log and disclose?
3:12–3:51
5
Which IBM subsidiaries were reportedly breached and how were they handled?
3:51–5:20
6
What is OpenAI’s new ‘super‑app’ strategy and why did a senior exec say ‘chat is dead’?
5:20–6:34
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from TechCrunch Industry News
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