Alex Holden
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Alex Holden (born November 5, 1974) is the owner of Hold Security, a computer security firm. As of 2015, the firm employs 16 people.


Life

In 1979, when Holden was five years old, Holden's family was denied permission to emigrate to the United States from
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
; this may have resulted in persecution for attempting to leave. However, seven years later the Chernobyl nuclear disaster led to mass evacuations, allowing the family to flee to
Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...
, moving next to
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, and finally the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. In Italy, at 14, he missed a year of school to work in a farm. Holden later attended, but did not graduate from, the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a Public university, public Urban university, urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropo ...
. At the age of 27, Holden became the chief
information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...
officer of Robert W. Baird & Co., a Milwaukee-based financial-services company that manages more than a hundred billion dollars of assets. Hold Security came into existence in February 2013, when a small security company called Cyopsis split in two.


Company Profile

Holden's firm Hold Security focuses on penetration testing and auditing for companies but also offers a unique service they call Deep Web Monitoring. In this service, the firm's analysts look for client's stolen login credentials, trade secrets, and any private employee or customer information that is circulating among hackers on the deep and
dark web The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets ( overlay networks) that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communica ...
.


Notable investigations


POS Vendor Breaches

In August 2016, Holden's firm discovers evidence leading to breach of Oracle's MICROS POS along with a number of other victims. Discovery details the indicators of compromise of MICROS and other victims and potential data that could have been stolen from them.


2016 Alleged Email Credentials Cache

In 2016, Holden claimed to have uncovered a major cache of 272 million unique email addresses along with the passwords to their
webmail Webmail (or web-based email) is an email service that can be accessed using a standard web browser. It contrasts with email service accessible through a specialised email client software. Additionally, many internet service providers (ISP) prov ...
accounts. Holden's news release was criticized when subsequent investigation by the webmail providers showed that almost none of the passwords were valid.


97 Dating Websites Breached

During the summer of 2015, Russian hackers breached 97 websites mostly made up of dating sites. Ashely Madison, the most prominent of these sites, had sensitive company information, emails, internal documents, and details of 30 million users stolen in this breach. Holden's firm were the ones who discovered the stolen information which they found on a server the hackers were using.


JP Morgan Breach

In the summer of 2014, JPMorgan Chase was attacked by a gang of Russian hackers who stole information compromising 76 million households and seven million small businesses. Holden and his firm were crucial in helping discover this intrusion uncovering a billion of passwords and usernames that the gang had stolen.


2014 Russian Hackers

In 2014, Holden and his firm discovered that a group of Russian hackers possessed 542 million stolen email addresses with 1.2 billion email-and-password combinations, the largest cache of stolen credentials discovered to date. Hold Security did not publicly name the victims, but at the request of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', an independent expert confirmed for the Times that the cache was authentic.


CorporateCarOnline Breach

In November 2013, Holden's firm discovered that the limousine software-as-a-service company Corporatecaronline had been hacked exposing credit card and personal information of nearly 1 million customers. Some of these customers include politicians, star athletes, and corporate executives. But, there were no indications that any of the information the hackers stole was abused in any way afterwards.


PR Newswire Breach

In October 2013, the same hackers that breached Adobe earlier that year did the same to PR Newswire. This group of hackers stole the usernames and encrypted passwords of the marketing and press release distribution service's customers. Holden and his firm were vital in the discover of this breach and the analysis of the stolen data from PR Newswire.


Adobe Systems Breach

Holden worked with cybersecurity journalist
Brian Krebs Brian Krebs (born 1972) is an American journalist and investigative reporter. He is best known for his coverage of profit-seeking cybercriminals.Perlroth, Nicole.Reporting From the Web's Underbelly. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved February 2 ...
to alert Adobe of the 2013 Adobe data breach, a theft of 2.9 million customer accounts and of the source code to some of Adobe's products. Adobe Systems publicly acknowledge the breach thanking Holden and Krebs for incident discovery.


Lexis Nexis, Dun & Bradstreet, HireRight/Kroll, and NW3C Breach

In 2013, popular data brokers like Lexis Nexis and the non-profit organization National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) were compromised when operations of the underground criminal
identity theft Identity theft, identity piracy or identity infringement occurs when someone uses another's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. ...
service was discovered. Hackers compromised systems within Lexis Nexis, Dun & Bradstreet, HireRight/Kroll, and NW3C stealing data and information. Holden and his firm were instrumental in discovering and analyzing the attack servers and breaches.


Credibility Issues

There has been evidence to suggest that Alex Holden has inflated figures, combined breaches, and invented hacker groups in order to obtain press and speaking positions. This has been pointed out as early as the alleged 2014 breaches. He has at various times claimed to possess degrees that he did not possess, attend schools he did not attend, and have been employed by employers who never contracted/employed him.


See also

*
Mykhailo Fedorov Mykhailo Albertovych Fedorov (, ; born 21 January 1991) is a Ukrainian politician, and businessman. He served as a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Digital Transformation from 2019 to March 2023.Vitaliy Goncharuk


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holden, Alex Ukrainian IT businesspeople University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Living people 1974 births