Richard Smith, CEO and Chairman of Equifax, retired suddenly Tuesday following the credit-reporting service’s data breach affecting the personal information of 143 million people. 

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. 

Ideally a penetration test should simulate a real world attack; in the real world, the attacker will always have some objective beyond “get into the network.”  No matter who the attacker is, they are motivated by something that they are trying to accomplish – and getting into the network is only one step in that process for the attacker.

Having a solid cyber breach response plan in place is imperative when every day wasted brings the enterprise closer to litigation.

The FBI and police in several countries have arrested more than 100 people and conducted hundreds of searches in a global crackdown on hackers linked to “Blackshades,” a malicious software program that is one of the most popular tools used by cyber criminals to hijack computers.

Sally Beauty is reporting that a security break discovered on March 5 affected fewer than 25,000 credit and debit card accounts. The Denton, Texas-based seller of beauty supplies says it is pursuing its investigation with a forensics firm and the U.S. Secret Service.

In last month’s column, we explored the Top Five Reasons to Report Computer Intrusions to Law Enforcement.  This month’s column will provide you with a sense of what your company, as a victim of a computer intrusion, should expect when working with the Feds.

 Judging by today’s headlines, it is only a matter of time until every company – yours included – is going to experience a computer intrusion, or perhaps another computer intrusion. When that happens, you may find yourself working with law enforcement. Sometimes, they will be the ones calling you.