IT systems nowadays are almost as important to the running of a lot of companies as the workers, and just as important is the measures that put in place to ensure the ongoing security of these systems so that the sensitive data held within is kept safe. In the situations where the security systems are not up to scratch, the networks are left open to cyber crime, which can lead to the loss of this data, or even worse for it to fall into the wrong hands. There are many stories all over about companies, and not just small ones, experiencing huge data loss due to a failure in securing their systems.
As this is being written in November 2011, Microsoft has recently been forced to deny that its Xbox Live system has been hacked, and to say that it is just phishing scams responsible for users of the platform finding fraudulent transactions being made from their account. The Sun newspaper in the UK insists they have been hacked. If true it would be highly embarrassing for such a large global corporation to have holes in their security system
In April 2011 the Playstation Network from Sony was also breached in a shocking security blunder that saw details of 77million accounts fall into the hands of hackers. The whole network had to be shut down for a good few days, and this led to many disgruntled fans losing faith in the system and general embarrassment in the press for Sony.
In one of the most costly security breaches ever, payment processing company Heartland Payment Services was hit in 2009, during which vast amounts of credit card details were stolen due to malicious software being placed on a network. For a company that processes 100million transactions per month, it is very bad that it took a massive event such as this to make them re-invest in the most state of the art IT security systems.
American Department store giants T.J. Maxx were left red faced in 2007 when millions of credit card details were lifted from their IT systems. They were also left out of pocked as it cost them $118million in the first year alone, and the estimate was that it would reach into the Billions once the various lawsuits were finished. This is a big financial loss, but the loss of trust in the company is even worse in these situations.
Sony, Heartland and T.J. Maxx are huge global corporations, meaning that they are likely to be able to swallow the cost of these cases, albeit painfully. If it happened to a smaller company, an SME for example, it could be catastrophic and lead to the business going under. This all shows just how important it is to have secure systems in place to stop data being lost or stolen.
As this is being written in November 2011, Microsoft has recently been forced to deny that its Xbox Live system has been hacked, and to say that it is just phishing scams responsible for users of the platform finding fraudulent transactions being made from their account. The Sun newspaper in the UK insists they have been hacked. If true it would be highly embarrassing for such a large global corporation to have holes in their security system
In April 2011 the Playstation Network from Sony was also breached in a shocking security blunder that saw details of 77million accounts fall into the hands of hackers. The whole network had to be shut down for a good few days, and this led to many disgruntled fans losing faith in the system and general embarrassment in the press for Sony.
In one of the most costly security breaches ever, payment processing company Heartland Payment Services was hit in 2009, during which vast amounts of credit card details were stolen due to malicious software being placed on a network. For a company that processes 100million transactions per month, it is very bad that it took a massive event such as this to make them re-invest in the most state of the art IT security systems.
American Department store giants T.J. Maxx were left red faced in 2007 when millions of credit card details were lifted from their IT systems. They were also left out of pocked as it cost them $118million in the first year alone, and the estimate was that it would reach into the Billions once the various lawsuits were finished. This is a big financial loss, but the loss of trust in the company is even worse in these situations.
Sony, Heartland and T.J. Maxx are huge global corporations, meaning that they are likely to be able to swallow the cost of these cases, albeit painfully. If it happened to a smaller company, an SME for example, it could be catastrophic and lead to the business going under. This all shows just how important it is to have secure systems in place to stop data being lost or stolen.
About the Author:
If you own a business you should consider investing in managed security services. Part of this will be to implement disaster recovery systems for such events.
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