In 2015, it seemed no one was safe from hackers. The year began with Sony reeling from a hack that put the studio and celebrities such as Seth Rogen and James Franco in a web of geopolitics and extortion. Seven months later came the high-profile Ashley Madison hack, which resulted in the release of the email and physical addresses for 37 million users. Cybercriminals stole $1 billion from banks in 30 countries as part of the Carbanak hack. Even the Director of the CIA wasn’t safe – his AOL email account was hacked by someone claiming to be a high school student.
Even brick and mortar companies are increasingly leveraging the internet and cloud services to expand their business. As traditional business models have changed to incorporate these resources, the security risks presented have evolved as well. In today’s world of digital business, the security risks faced by the majority of companies have largely shifted into the cyber realm.
Being adequately prepared to respond to a data breach is an ever-changing game – new threats are emerging, new regulations are being put into place and companies must regularly re-evaluate their response plans to ensure they are applicable to today’s threat landscape. Unfortunately, many companies are not reviewing and updating their plans frequently enough – in fact, only 25 percent of companies say they update their response plans once or twice a year. Not to mention that no matter how well prepared and updated a company’s plan is, an actual live breach response can present unforeseen challenges that cause companies to stumble.
In the past 12 months, roughly one in three targeted attacks resulted in an actual security breach, which equates to two to three effective attacks per month for the average company.
The UK security and intelligence communications organization GCHQ has launched a cyber security accelerator as part of a program to create two “world leading” innovation centers in Britain.
During a recent European Parliament meeting, Ana Gomes, a Portuguese member of the parliament said that while a thriving data-driven economy represents an opportunity for growth and employment, big data can also pose significant risks and challenges, particularly as regards fundamental rights, including privacy and data protection.
Airports are placing a higher priority on IT investments for passenger and airport security with 50 percent rating it a high priority, up from 37 percent last year.
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