Thief posed as Wi-Fi fixing hero, then stole priceless trophy

Security

If people think you are doing a legitimate job, you can get away with anything

PWNED Welcome, once again, to PWNED, where each week we share the saga of an organization that couldn’t get out of its own way when it comes to security.

This week’s tale comes courtesy of Dahvid Schloss, a professional red teamer who was also involved (as a supervisor) in last week’s story about hackers shoveling snow in order to gain access to restricted areas. This time, it was Schloss himself who broke in, and he used the promise of better connectivity to do it.

On one assignment, Schloss was asked to test the physical and network security of a company that was near the top of the Fortune 500 and had a reputation for sponsoring and providing the trophy for an international sporting competition. According to him, there were three copies made of the trophy: one for the winner, one for the host nation itself, and one for the sponsor.

When Schloss was conducting his audit, the location he visited was undergoing construction, creating problems with the office Wi-Fi that all the employees noticed and hated. So when Schloss and his team invaded the place and started probing the wireless network, no one questioned them.

“So, you got three of us that are kind of walking through this campus with antennas sticking out of our laptops. We were not being secretive at all, but we figured this is California and there’s plenty of tech bros and nerds everywhere so antennas sticking out of a computer is not going to scare people,” Schloss said. “But everyone kept coming up to us – not to ask us if we were supposed to be there, but to ask us if we were going to fix the Wi-Fi.”

After wandering the building, Schloss and his team came to the marketing department where one of the trophies, which he estimates was worth at least $250,000 (or, perhaps, priceless as there are only three), was sitting in a case. Knowing that his job was to test overall security and not just network security, he opened up the case and proceeded to remove the trophy.

Someone from the marketing department saw Schloss pulling the trophy out of the case and talked to him while he was doing it. Their question: “Are you here to fix the Wi-Fi?” When he answered “yes,” the marketing people ignored him as he slipped the trophy into his backpack.

He took the trophy out of the building and held onto it for two and a half weeks, with no one saying anything about it. However, when it came time for him to give a presentation to the company executives, he brought the prize with him.

“We walked to the boardroom and the first thing I do in this boardroom is I pull out the trophy and I put it on the table,” Schloss told us. “And all these executives are sitting around there as we're about to give this security report on where the maturity is at and that was like enough said, right? You could see the eyes just popping open.”

What we can learn from this story is that employees tend to trust people in the workplace, even outside contractors. If they think that someone belongs in the building, they won’t question that person’s motives, even if they see them doing wrong.

I’m reminded of a situation that took place at a job I was working at many years ago. It was around 6 pm and most people had left the office, but the cleaning lady was there sweeping up when I heard a commotion coming from my coworker’s cubicle. My colleague, who had been at the gym and left her wallet at her desk, returned to find the cleaner taking cash out of her wallet. 

At first I didn’t believe it and thought there must be a misunderstanding because the cleaning lady, unlike Schloss’ set of fake Wi-Fi repairmen, was legitimately supposed to be working that night. However, my coworker caught her red-handed and she later admitted stealing the money. 

So train your staff to question everyone, especially strangers who look like they belong in the building. ®