Huge IT Security Disasters
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 there has been a newspaper report that has led to Microsoft releasing a statement denying that their Xbox Live system has been the victim of a hacking campaign – they say all of the strange transactions their users are noticing that they didn’t make themselves were down to phishing scams not security breaches. A popular UK tabloid newspaper The Sun still stands by the original hacking story. It is bad PR for Microsoft, and if they have been hacked then it is a big embarrassment as the expectation is that the bigger companies are the ones who are most secure.
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.
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.
If you own a business you should consider investing in managed IT Security services such as those offered by Keytech to secure your data and give you peace of mind.