What Happened?

HipShipper, a U.S.-based shipping service specializing in international e-commerce deliveries, suffered a significant data breach due to an improperly configured Amazon S3 bucket. The breach, discovered by researchers at Cybernews, exposed 14 million shipping labels containing sensitive customer information, including customer names, addresses, and contact information. The data was stored in a publicly accessible bucket, meaning anyone with internet access could view, exfiltrate, and exploit the information.

What Was Leaked?

The exposed bucket contained:

• Customer information: Names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
• Order details: Tracking numbers and shipping destinations.
  
  

Consequences of This Leak

Chief of the consequences is not the immediate risks of customer information floating around on the public internet and dark web, but the ability for bad actors to further exploit this information in scamming and social engineering schemes.

With their contact information, bad actors could contact HipShipper customers and impersonate a representative of the service (or others) with the aim of extracting further information from the victim, including credentials, financial information, or even immediate payment.

How to Prevent a Similar Incident

Restrict Public Access & Secure Cloud Storage

• Configure strict access controls to ensure only authorized users or services can access sensitive data
• Regularly review and update permissions to minimize exposure
  
  

Monitor & Audit Access Logs

• Continuously track access logs to detect unauthorized activity
• Conduct retrospective log analysis to identify any suspicious access patterns
  
  

Encrypt Data at Rest & In Transit

• Enable server-side encryption to protect stored data
• Use AWS Key Management Service (KMS) or equivalent tools to securely manage encryption keys
  
  

Automate Security Measures

• Deploy automated security checks to detect misconfigurations and vulnerabilities
• Use cloud security tools that provide real-time alerts and automated remediation
  
  

Conduct Regular Security Audits

• Perform frequent security assessments to identify and address weak points
• Implement penetration testing to simulate potential attacks and strengthen defenses

Train Employees on Cybersecurity Best Practices

• Educate teams on data security, phishing risks, and access control policies
• Establish clear protocols for handling and securing sensitive information
  
  

Deploy Programmatic Malware Scanning

• Ensure malicious code is not ingested, stored, or distributed through Amazon S3 buckets to downstream users
• Scan all data to ensure total security and eliminate the malware threat
  
  

About Cloud Storage Security

Cloud Storage Security (CSS) offers the general public a guide on Amazon S3 security configuration best practices, which could help prevent this or similar incidents.