In 2009, Heartland Payment Systems announced that it had suffered a devastating breach: 134 million credit cards were exposed through SQL Injection attacks used to install spyware on Heartland’s data systems. The company processes payments for debit, prepaid and credit cards, in addition to online payments and checks and payroll services.
Frankly, it’s costing U.S. businesses more than other nations’ enterprises worldwide, according to data collected in the 2014 Cost of Cyber Crime Study: United Statesfrom the Ponemon Institute and HP Enterprise Security. The mean cost of cyber crime for a company in the U.S. last year was $12.7 million per year; other countries’ enterprises mean costs ranged from Germany’s $8.13 million to Russia’s mere $3.33 million. The study observes a $1.1 million (or 9.3 percent) increase in cyber crime costs for the U.S. from last year’s report.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman proposed what he called “the strongest” data security law in the nation to combat an increase in the theft of personal information online.
Hotel chain Marriott has requested the Federal Communications Commission to allow the full implementation of blocking hotel guests’ personal Wi-Fi and Mi-Fi devices around its premises, especially conference and meeting rooms. Marriott says that the request is based on security concerns, stating that guests can use their hotspot-enabled devices to compromise the hotel’s network or to commit a data breach involving other guests.
Consumers want more digital capabilities from their commercial banks – 70 percent of commercial banking customers use online or mobile banking each week, but they are looking for more.
THE MAJORITY OF U.S. CONSUMERS (94 PERCENT) have heard or read about major retailer data breaches in the past year, and three-quarters say retailer data breaches have increased their level of concern about personal data privacy, and 61 percent characterize their data management as “Take-Charge” instead of Reactive (26 percent) or Passive (11 percent), but despite these reservations, consumers are changing very little about their key shopping habits.
Ask most corporate executives to define cybersecurity and their initial thoughts turn to data privacy. That’s for good reason. Companies are bleeding corporate trade secrets and personally identifiable information at such an alarming rate that confidentiality issues and related compliance concerns can’t help but dominate the cybersecurity agenda. Yet, ask cybersecurity professionals what keeps them up at night, and the topic invariably turns to data deletion, tampering with control systems, and the potential to cause physical harm over the Internet. These concerns fall into categories that are distinct from protecting data confidentiality. Instead, they demonstrate the importance of maintaining an enterprise focus on the integrity and availability of your company’s most essential data, systems and services.
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