Entertainment bigwigs have an Achilles heel, and hackers know how to use it

The security weaknesses of vendors are increasingly the weaknesses of their clients

In December, hackers impersonating an executive at Interscope Records, the record label owned by Universal Music Group, managed to bypass all the latest in digital defenses with a simple email.

In a carefully tailored message, the hackers urged an executive at September Management, a music management business, and another at Cherrytree Music Company, a management and record company, to send them Lady Gaga’s stem files — files used by music engineers and producers for remixing and remastering.

With a click of a button, the files made their way into hackers’ hands, according to three people who are familiar with the