When you earn admin access, it can feel like you’ve just been handed the keys to the castle—because you have. And there’s no better time to revisit what’s at stake than the moment you step into that responsibility.
Most people imagine cyberattacks as shadowy hackers in hoodies hammering away at firewalls with cutting-edge zero-days. But the world’s biggest breaches rarely begin with elite code or sophisticated malware. They start with something ordinary. Something small. Something human.
Below are five real stories chosen from hundreds—stories that mirror the situations we face at Umbra every single day. Stories that highlight the role each of us plays in protecting our company.
Welcome to The Weakest Link.
Story 1: The Fish Tank Hack
Picture a glittering Las Vegas casino lobby, complete with neon lights and a massive aquarium full of exotic fish. What no one noticed was the internet-connected thermometer inside the tank—installed so staff could check the temperature remotely.
Hackers noticed.
They slipped into the network through that thermometer, quietly explored the internal environment, and eventually found the High Roller database. They exfiltrated 10GB of sensitive data—and sent it out through the same fish tank device.
A fortress of security brought down by… an aquarium thermometer.
Lesson: Every connected device expands the attack surface. Even the ones that look harmless.
Story 2: The Phone Call That Took Down the Strip
Fast-forward to Las Vegas in 2023. MGM Resorts is buzzing on a Saturday night when an IT help-desk phone rings. A calm voice claims to be an MGM employee locked out of their account. They drop a manager’s name. They sound urgent. A password reset is requested—and granted.
That single moment of misplaced trust opened the door.
Within hours:
• Slot machines froze
• Room keys stopped working
• Reservations failed
• Operations across the Strip ground to a halt
All because of one phone call.
Lesson: Verification is security. Without proper identity checks, even the strongest defenses collapse.
Story 3: SolarWinds – The Poisoned Update
SolarWinds, creator of a widely used IT management platform, pushed out a routine, digitally signed update in 2020. Customers installed it without hesitation.
But attackers had already infiltrated SolarWinds’ development pipeline and inserted malicious code into that very update. When organizations applied it, they unknowingly invited the attackers in.
Thousands of companies and federal agencies were compromised—not because hackers broke in, but because trusted software delivered the backdoor for them.
Lesson: Trust is not a control. Even the most reputable vendors must be verified and monitored.
Story 4: Clorox and Cognizant – When Verification Goes Missing
In 2023, Clorox outsourced its help-desk functions to Cognizant. One day, a caller pretended to be a Clorox employee. The agent reset the caller’s password—without verification. Then they reset MFA—also without verification.
Later, another call came from someone impersonating Clorox IT security. The agent complied again.
From there, attackers escalated access, disrupted manufacturing, and took down supply chains. Clorox later estimated the damage at nearly $380 million, and is now suing Cognizant for negligence.
Lesson: One skipped verification step can snowball into catastrophic financial, operational, and legal consequences.
Story 5: Lenovo – When the Vendor Is the Weak Link
Lenovo has repeatedly shipped devices containing pre-installed vulnerabilities or firmware-level risks. Among the most notable:
- 2014–2015: Visual Discovery adware with a self-signed root certificate created a massive man-in-the-middle attack surface.
- 2015: Firmware rootkit (Lenovo Service Engine) that reinstalled itself even after a clean OS wipe.
- 2016: Lenovo Accelerator created yet another proxy-based MITM risk.
- 2021–2022: Multiple critical vulnerabilities discovered in UEFI firmware across many laptop models.
Despite lawsuits, fines, and public outcry, many users—even IT professionals—remain unaware.
Lesson: Supply chain diligence is not optional. Reputable-looking vendors can—and have—introduced systemic risk.
The Common Thread
These breaches couldn’t be more different:
A fish tank thermometer.
A help-desk call.
A poisoned software update.
A password reset.
A trusted hardware vendor.
And yet, they all share the same root cause:
Weak processes.
Missing steps.
Assumptions.
Trust where verification should have been.
Hackers rarely target the hardest point of entry—they exploit the easy ones.
So ask yourself:
Where is our fish tank?
Where is our weakest link?
Because the biggest breaches almost never start with brilliant code. They start with a phone call, a device, a ticket, or a shortcut someone thought was “safe enough.”
How To Avoid Becoming the Next Case Study
Don’t rely on luck.
Don’t rely on familiarity.
Don’t rely on “this seems fine.”
Rely on:
- Strong, enforced processes
- Consistent verification
- Training
- The discipline to follow procedure every single time
- The courage to speak up when something doesn’t look right
None of us are perfect—mistakes will happen. That’s exactly why procedure matters. If a process is missing or flawed, fix it. Immediately.
We never want to be the story told to the IT teams of tomorrow about the avoidable mistake that started a disaster.
Thank you for taking security seriously. You are one of the pillars that keeps your business safe.
