Many businesses run on IT systems, some being very large and complex, and by far the most vital part of these system is the security that has been implemented to keep it secure. If the security is found lacking then however good and modern the system is it could fall victim to malicious Internet attacks, also known as cyber crime. There are a lot of organisations worldwide who have found themselves on the receiving end of such malicious behaviour, and some are larger organisations that span many countries!
This article was written in November 2011, and at the current time there is a row going on between The Sun newspaper and Microsoft over their Xbox Live system - The Sun claims they were hacked but Microsoft says they weren't and that reports of recent fraudulent transactions were down to a phishing scam rather than a security breach. The Sun is still saying their hacking story is right and that Microsoft are lying. Whatever the outcome, there will still be red faces all round at Microsoft if it is found they were breached as customers trust large companies with their data as they assume it will be safe.
2011 was a bad year for the big gaming console giants, as in April 2011 Sony's Playstation Network was hacked, leading to 77million account details including password and credit card details being stolen. They had to switch it all off for a few days when fixing the problem, and a lot of people have not gone back due not trusting Sony to prevent it happening again.
Back in 2009, Heartland Payment Services in the USA fell victim to one of the biggest security problems in history. They are a payment processing corporation who process over 100million payments a month through credit cards, and lots of these details were stolen. It looked very bad- a company that dealt with such sensitive information not having security systems to withstand cyber crime is a cause for concern.
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.
Now for a large multi-national or global corporation, losses such as those reported in the cases above will have been painful but they have the resources to carry on. If this happened to a small to medium sized business the effects the effects could be catastrophic and could even lead to closure.
This article was written in November 2011, and at the current time there is a row going on between The Sun newspaper and Microsoft over their Xbox Live system - The Sun claims they were hacked but Microsoft says they weren't and that reports of recent fraudulent transactions were down to a phishing scam rather than a security breach. The Sun is still saying their hacking story is right and that Microsoft are lying. Whatever the outcome, there will still be red faces all round at Microsoft if it is found they were breached as customers trust large companies with their data as they assume it will be safe.
2011 was a bad year for the big gaming console giants, as in April 2011 Sony's Playstation Network was hacked, leading to 77million account details including password and credit card details being stolen. They had to switch it all off for a few days when fixing the problem, and a lot of people have not gone back due not trusting Sony to prevent it happening again.
Back in 2009, Heartland Payment Services in the USA fell victim to one of the biggest security problems in history. They are a payment processing corporation who process over 100million payments a month through credit cards, and lots of these details were stolen. It looked very bad- a company that dealt with such sensitive information not having security systems to withstand cyber crime is a cause for concern.
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.
Now for a large multi-national or global corporation, losses such as those reported in the cases above will have been painful but they have the resources to carry on. If this happened to a small to medium sized business the effects the effects could be catastrophic and could even lead to closure.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment