Continued from Friday’s post, here is more information regarding how the indictment of hacker Albert Gonzalez in connection with the biggest credit card number heist in history is significant to your business and protecting its information assets:
- As difficult as it is to announce a data breach, companies not only have the responsibility to their customers to alert authorities of a data breach, but they will also be helping the efforts of law enforcement to catch criminals like Gonzalez by announcing in a prompt manner. Companies already implicated in highly-publicized breaches have lost immeasurable, irreparable damage to their reputations. However, as this story develops, there has been news that Heartland may have known more about the scope of the breach than what they reported. This may be a serious problem for the company.
- While Gonzalez is the malicious intruder in this case, the corporate victims also take a piece of the blame, whether rightfully so or not. Securing a network is like locking your doors when you leave your house—except it takes a lot more time, effort, and money.
- With so much attention being paid lately to social engineering techniques such as phishing and the threat posed by malicious “insiders” in rough economic times, this massive data breach was executed using somewhat-traditional network hacking. Hackers have not abandoned this tactic.
- As cumbersome as laws like the GLBA, HIPAA, PCI, and the Massachusetts Data Protection Law are, they may very well be necessary to keep individuals safe from identity fraud.
GraVoc Associates, Inc, located in Peabody, MA, serves customers in Greater Boston, New England, and beyond in the practices of information systems, information security, and professional and technological services. The GraVoc News Blog is updated frequently to provide free information and tips to help your company’s bottom line. For more information regarding GraVoc’s services and how they can help your company’s efficiency and security, please visit https://www.gravoc.com.