SunBlock Systems Helps a Public Corporation Avoid a Costly Investigation

The Client

A publicly traded corporation

The Scenario

The client discovered that proprietary information about an upcoming corporate announcement was appearing on message boards and in chat rooms before any public release. As a result, the client company's stock started to drop. In response, the client and the SEC called for an investigation.

The Investigation

The client called in an external investigative team to assess the situation and determine the source of the leak. SunBlock investigators found that the client had placed a press release on their Internet Web server in preparation for the announcement, but included no links or any other referrals. Investigators also found that the client's Web server was configured to allow private documents to be accessed by web crawlers, search engines, and URL editing, even if no links to the document existed. These findings satisfied the SEC that the incident was an accidental release of information.

Given the seriousness of the security problem, the client asked SunBlock to conduct a complete security review of their IT systems. SunBlock's review identified multiple security deficiencies in the client's network systems, including a poorly configured firewall that allowed all incoming traffic. SunBlock experts corrected all of the problems and secured the clients systems.

The Benefits

SunBlock's investigation discovered serious security vulnerabilities in the client's IT systems. This comprehensive assessment helped the client identify the source of its security breach and avoid a costly and potentially high-profile SEC investigation. In addition, the client uncovered several other security issues that could have resulted in considerable loss of private data and intellectual property.