The hacker attack affecting Leona Lewis comes only days after UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills Lord Mandelson launched a crackdown on internet piracy and a month after hackers stole unfinished songs by last year’s X-factor winner Alexander Burke.
The hack and theft of Leona Lewis’ songs could cost the former X-factor winner millions of pounds.
The theft is under investigation, and in an interview with the BBC, the head of the record industry body IFPI, Jeremy Banks, said it is “actively monitoring and removing illegal copies of this track from the internet to minimise the disruption caused by the leak.”
A Syco spokesman told the UK broadcaster that the company’s computers had been under a sustained attack and that charges would be brought against those responsible.
Mark Evans, marketing and communications director at IT service provider Imerja, said in a comment to Infosecurity on the Leona Lewis computer hack:
“It would be easy to be cynical about the high profile hack and leak of Leona Lewis’ unreleased tracks, especially as Simon Cowell’s X-Factor starts again on Saturday but, fundamentally, the case highlights an important point.
“Businesses, whatever their size or status must ensure that the proper security is in place. Hackers are referred to in this case, suggesting that perimeter security had been broken however, the unreleased songs could just have easily been lifted by an insider using a portable device. Without both internal and perimeter security measures, and a supporting security policy in place, businesses will always be vulnerable to this kind of breach. Indeed, whilst this is a high profile case because of the names involved, any business that is not properly protected is fair game to the would be hacker.
“Ultimately though, can it really be a coincidence that the hackers are in tune with Cowell's PR schedule?”, Evans speculated.
PR stunt?
Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer at security vendor Imperva, suspects that it is all a PR stunt.
If the hackers stole the songs and leaked them, "then the hacker has handed Ms Lewis, Syco and Mr Cowell a lot of free publicity on a silver platter. Or it could simply be a publicity stunt".
"The first thing I say when I see a data breach is - show me the money. And I don't see that here", he said. "Record company internal networks contain business sensitive information about artist contracts, sales figures, etc. that could be used by attackers to produce revenues. I’d expect a real attacker to hit those before going public with a song that is already contracted to the record company.
"And since there is very little actual damage (if any) being caused to the record company, I have to conclude it's really a publicity stunt. It's a well-planned one however, as it involves minimal effort on the part of those concerned, so it promises to be a goodie", he added.