In what constitutes the latest in a series of blows to the US intelligence community’s reputation for stringent information security, UpGuard’s Cyber Resilience Team can now reveal the discovery by Cyber Risk Analyst Chris Vickery of a publicly exposed file repository containing highly sensitive US military data. Analysis of the exposed information suggests the overall project is related to the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), a combat support and intelligence agency housed within the Department of Defense (DoD).
Whether browsing the internet on a mobile device, or maintaining dozens of servers, we place trust in the security and integrity of the systems to which we are entrusting our most valuable data. With every decision we make to trust in such systems, we expose ourself a bit more to the risk that a breach might compromise this information. With every permission granted, every personal detail entered, you open yourself up a bit more to such a possibility. This is cyber risk: a fact of life in the world of today, endemic to any activity relying on internet-facing technology.
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Cyber Risk Analyst
As a security researcher, Chris possesses a long track record of professional distinction and success discovering major data breaches and vulnerabilities across the cyber landscape. Previous achievements have included reports on the online exposure of hundreds of thousands of patient medical records, an illegal spam operation insecurely storing 1.4 billion target email addresses, a series of unsecured MongoDB databases which threatened the security of millions of internet users, and a publicly accessible database containing the voter registration records for 93.4 million Mexican citizens. As a researcher and analyst, Chris has helped to protect the most sensitive data of hundreds of millions of people, while raising awareness of the looming issues of cyber risk.
Cyber Resilience Analyst
Dan’s writing and journalism has appeared in VICE, Rolling Stone, Salon, The Daily Beast, Gawker, and Deadspin. His essay for Jacobin about labor exploitation in professional wrestling was anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing 2015. As a writer and analyst, Dan communicates the most important and relevant lessons of data breaches to both technically-proficient readers and to a general audience of those most affected by cyber risk.