I’d have to imagine this is very common, and they’ve probably got one at all the big tech companies. It’s an underreported threat IMO. Who would say no to doubling their salary in exchange for running the occasional DB query for their home country?
Of course, if I'm China, I can try it with enough people to get several assets.
Also, of the offer includes "we won't kill your grandma", uptake might be higher.
Turning someone is rarely an upfront request.
You make friends with them and make small talk about politics to see if there are any sympathies to your cause.
Ask for a small favor and see if they'll do it, then progress slowly. You only ask them to break the law once they're already on your side.
> MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego or Extortion (depending on source)
> RASCLS: Reciprocation, Authority, Scarcity, Commitment and Consistency, Liking, and Social Proof.
In general, most companies want to scope SOX as narrowly as possible. So if you can, only things that your auditors think will affect revenue reporting.
Querying ads performance data? Sure, we'll SOXify it. Querying user accounts writ large? "Meh, our engineers need to be productive."
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777352750/how-saudi-arabia-us...
I’ve worked for lots of SOX companies as a third party and had root/sqlplus on most of them. There’s really to relationship between SOX and security.
If it was from the inside more likely a privileged user was compromised. It could also explain why Twitter is being quiet, especially if the investigation is ongoing.