The widespread use of the internet has now provided many vectors of infiltration for hackers. Indeed, cybercrime is a growing industry and is not only a threat which can cost companies millions of dollars in damages, but can forever tarnish the reputation and image of a company. In this article, we’ll go over some notable cyber security breaches of recent years, as well look into the overall worldwide response to this type of crime:
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3 Examples of Cyber security Breaches
Wendy’s
During 2016, a hacker managed to infiltrate the American fast food franchise Wendy’s. The cyber breach infected the cash registers of up to 1000 branches with malware. This resulted in customer’s credit card details being stolen, and hackers being able to remotely access the checkout infrastructure of the company. This resulted in the Fast Food Giant being the subject of several class action lawsuits, as it had been reported that preventative measures could have stopped the attack, but were not implemented.
Target
In 2013, the Target Corporation, a successful American retail company, had been hit by a devastating cyber-attack. This cybersecurity breach had exposed around 70 million datasets, divulging sensitive customer information to the hackers, much of which were PIN codes and bank details. This single data breach resulted in a $10 million settlement for the affected customers, with CEO Gregg Steinhafel resigning only 6 months after the attack.
LivingSocial
LivingSocial is an e-commerce platform partly owned by Amazon, and serves as an online marketplace. In 2013, the company was infiltrated by a hacker who stole the passwords, names and other personal information of more than 50 million people; truly a staggering accomplishment. Though their overseas branches in Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand did not experience the force of the impact (Due to their websites being hosted on differing servers), customers from other countries in which LivingSocial operated from had to be notified of the fact that their passwords had been leaked. Fortunately, the database which holds customer credit card information was not able to be hacked into.
The Overall Response to Cyber Security Threats
In many cases, the aftermath of a cyber-attack is much more damaging than the attack itself. For example:
- Damages to the company’s image sometimes cannot be reversed.
- Customers could demand substantial compensation for having their data mishandled.
Indeed, the cyber security panic has already happened, with US companies increasing their purchases of cyber security insurance by 12% from 2018 – 2019, as illuminated by a survey conducted by the ‘Risk Management Society.’ Cyber Security Assessments area also being more popular, with penetration tests experiencing an increased by 9%, from 38 to 47%.
However, regardless of the increased preventative measures, almost half of all businesses in the US still do not have adequate cyber security insurance. This fact is made all the more relevant given that a single cyber breach incident is enough to bring down a whole company. And the data doesn’t lie: The number of Small businesses affected by some form of security hack has increased by 8% since 2015. For larger companies, the risk is even greater, increasing by 14%.
Logique Digital Indonesia
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