RSA SecurID hack costs EMC $66 Million

The security breach at RSA compromised its SecurID two-factor authentication system has so far cost the parent company EMC $66 million, according to the Washington Post. 

In an earnings call this week discussing the company's second quarter results, EVP David Goluden, confirmed that they incurred an accrued cost associated with investigating the attack, hardening our systems and working with customers to implement our remediation programmes.

In total, around $66 million has been spent as a result of the incident, including on transaction monitoring for worried corporate customers and replacements for firms that requested them, said the Post.

The company also revealed that it began alerting customers within hours of the attack and that it believes the target was defence and government agency information, not financial data.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the breach continues, with e-mail security specialist claiming that a malware campaign has been launched targeting the owners of the 40 million SecurID Token user accounts compromised.

Another authentication outfit, SecurEnvoy has been quick to pick up on the scam and use it to attack its rival, with CTO Andrew Kemshall, claiming that the success of this Zishing attack vector is the direct result of RSA inadequate and belated response to news of a break-in to its servers. Had the firm launched a better response as soon as the incident took place, then this infection campaign would not have any effect on users at all. It might also not have happened at all.