InTegriLogic Blog
InTegriLogic has been serving the Tucson area since 1999, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.
Accenture
https://threatpost.com/accenture-lockbit-ransomware-attack/168594/
Exploit: RansomwareAccenture: Consulting Firm
Risk to Business: 1.437 = Extreme
The LockBit ransomware gang has hit consulting giant Accenture. In a post on its dark web announcement site, the gang is offering multiple Accenture databases for sale. The LockBit gang also chose to poke fun at Accenture’s security. The leak site shows a folder named W1 that contains a collection of PDF documents allegedly stolen from the company. The LockBit ransomware gang reports theft of 6 terabytes worth of Accenture’s data. LockBit requested a $50 million ransomware payment. News outlets are reporting that the hack was the result of an insider job.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware hits against big service providers are attractive for cybercriminals because they often open up fresh avenues of attack, creating third-party risk.
Ford Motor Company
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/senior-citizens-personal-data/Exploit: Misconfiguration
Ford Motor Company: Automobile Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 2.033 = Severe
A misconfigured instance of the Pega Infinity customer engagement system running on Ford’s servers is the culprit for a data breach this week that exposed client and employee information at Ford. That blunder opened up an opportunity for anyone to access sensitive systems and obtain proprietary data, such as customer databases, employee records, internal tickets, etc. Researchers say that Ford was notified of this massive problem as long as six months ago but failed to take action.
Risk to Individual: 2.371 = Severe
The investigation is ongoing, but right now we know that some of the exposed assets contained sensitive Personal Identifiable Information (PII), and included customer and employee records, finance account numbers, Database names and tables, OAuth access tokens, Internal support tickets, User profiles within the organization, pulse actions, internal interfaces, search bar history and other details.
How It Could Affect Your Business: Companies are under the gun for cybersecurity risk often enough without rookie mistakes like failing to secure a database contributing to the danger.
T- Mobile
https://gizmodo.com/hacker-claims-to-have-data-on-more-than-100-million-t-m-1847491056Exploit: Hacking
T-Mobile: Mobile Phone Company
Risk to Business: 1.673=Severe
Hackers are claiming that they’ve obtained data related to more than 100 million US T-Mobile customers in a post on a popular dark web forum. They’re selling access to part of the information for 6 Bitcoin which translates into roughly $277,000. T-Mobile has confirmed the incident after some back-and-forth.
Risk to Business: 1.737=Severe
The data purportedly stolen is records and information for consumers including social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver licenses information.
How It Could Affect Your Business: Cybercriminals love personal data, the number one type of data stolen in 2020. Protecting customer data is critical to maintaining good customer relationships.
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Exploit: RansomwareMaine Department of Environmental Protection: State Government Agency
Risk to Business: 1.825 = Severe
Ransomware attacks endangered operations at two Maine wastewater treatment facilities this week. The attacks occurred in the Aroostook County town of Limestone and the town of Mount Desert on Mount Desert Island. Officials were quick to note that the attacks presented no threat to public health and safety, characterizing them as minor. Operations have been restored.
How It Could Affect Your Business: Infrastructure targets are increasingly under fire by cybercriminals because of the historically poor security and rich payouts.
France – Chanel
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/chanel-apologizes-for-data-breach/Exploit: Ransomware
Chanel: Fashion House
Risk to Business: 2.721 = Moderate
French luxury brand Chanel has issued an apology after personal data belonging to its customers was exposed in an incident that impacted customers in Korea. A database belonging to the famed perfume and fashion brand is believed to have been compromised by hackers in a cyberattack at an unnamed cloud-based data storage firm.
Risk to Business: 2.326 = Moderate
The stolen data includes birth dates, customer names, gender details, passwords, phone numbers and shopping or payment history. The incident is still under investigation and complete details have not been released.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Cyberattacks against service providers have been steadily increasing as cybercriminals strike at lynchpins to gain access to even more valuable data.
Germany – Crytek Studios
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/crytek-confirms-egregor-ransomware-attack-customer-data-theft/Exploit: Ransomware
Crytek Games: Game Studio
Risk to Business: 1.612 = Severe
German game developer Crytek has just disclosed that the Egregor ransomware gang breached its network in late 2020 obtaining client information, stealing proprietary data and encrypting systems. Files related to online FPS hit WarFace, development data on Crytek’s canceled Arena of Fate MOBA game, and documents with information on their network operations. The company downplayed the impact in a letter to potentially impacted individuals.
Risk to Business: 1.669 = Severe
The customer information exposed included players’ first and last name, job title, company name, email, business address, phone number and country. Impacted players have been sent a notification by mail.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware is the weapon of choice for both run-of-the-mill cybercriminals and nation-state threat actors. Every business needs to be ready for it.
Israel – Bar Ilan University
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/computer-hardware-giant-gigabyte-hit-by-ransomexx-ransomware/Exploit: Nation-State Hacking
Bar Ilan University: Institution of Higher Learning
Risk to Business: 1.111 = Severe
A cyberattack that targeted Israel’s Bar Ilan University over the weekend was likely launched by Chinese threat actors as part of a massive attack against Israeli targets in varied sectors. In a report released by FireEye, the incident is categorized as part of a large-scale Chinese attack on Israel, in itself part of a broader campaign that targeted Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Thailand.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Business: Nation-state threat actors frequently use ransomware to strike at their targets because it is cheap and effective.
Accenture
https://threatpost.com/accenture-lockbit-ransomware-attack/168594/
Exploit: RansomwareAccenture: Consulting Firm
Risk to Business: 1.437 = Extreme
The LockBit ransomware gang has hit consulting giant Accenture. In a post on its dark web announcement site, the gang is offering multiple Accenture databases for sale. The LockBit gang also chose to poke fun at Accenture’s security. The leak site shows a folder named W1 that contains a collection of PDF documents allegedly stolen from the company. The LockBit ransomware gang reports theft of 6 terabytes worth of Accenture’s data. LockBit requested a $50 million ransomware payment. News outlets are reporting that the hack was the result of an insider job.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware hits against big service providers are attractive for cybercriminals because they often open up fresh avenues of attack, creating third-party risk.
Ford Motor Company
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/senior-citizens-personal-data/Exploit: Misconfiguration
Ford Motor Company: Automobile Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 2.033 = Severe
A misconfigured instance of the Pega Infinity customer engagement system running on Ford’s servers is the culprit for a data breach this week that exposed client and employee information at Ford. That blunder opened up an opportunity for anyone to access sensitive systems and obtain proprietary data, such as customer databases, employee records, internal tickets, etc. Researchers say that Ford was notified of this massive problem as long as six months ago but failed to take action.
Risk to Individual: 2.371 = Severe
The investigation is ongoing, but right now we know that some of the exposed assets contained sensitive Personal Identifiable Information (PII), and included customer and employee records, finance account numbers, Database names and tables, OAuth access tokens, Internal support tickets, User profiles within the organization, pulse actions, internal interfaces, search bar history and other details.
How It Could Affect Your Business: Companies are under the gun for cybersecurity risk often enough without rookie mistakes like failing to secure a database contributing to the danger.
T- Mobile
https://gizmodo.com/hacker-claims-to-have-data-on-more-than-100-million-t-m-1847491056Exploit: Hacking
T-Mobile: Mobile Phone Company
Risk to Business: 1.673=Severe
Hackers are claiming that they’ve obtained data related to more than 100 million US T-Mobile customers in a post on a popular dark web forum. They’re selling access to part of the information for 6 Bitcoin which translates into roughly $277,000. T-Mobile has confirmed the incident after some back-and-forth.
Risk to Business: 1.737=Severe
The data purportedly stolen is records and information for consumers including social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver licenses information.
How It Could Affect Your Business: Cybercriminals love personal data, the number one type of data stolen in 2020. Protecting customer data is critical to maintaining good customer relationships.
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Exploit: RansomwareMaine Department of Environmental Protection: State Government Agency
Risk to Business: 1.825 = Severe
Ransomware attacks endangered operations at two Maine wastewater treatment facilities this week. The attacks occurred in the Aroostook County town of Limestone and the town of Mount Desert on Mount Desert Island. Officials were quick to note that the attacks presented no threat to public health and safety, characterizing them as minor. Operations have been restored.
How It Could Affect Your Business: Infrastructure targets are increasingly under fire by cybercriminals because of the historically poor security and rich payouts.
France – Chanel
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/chanel-apologizes-for-data-breach/Exploit: Ransomware
Chanel: Fashion House
Risk to Business: 2.721 = Moderate
French luxury brand Chanel has issued an apology after personal data belonging to its customers was exposed in an incident that impacted customers in Korea. A database belonging to the famed perfume and fashion brand is believed to have been compromised by hackers in a cyberattack at an unnamed cloud-based data storage firm.
Risk to Business: 2.326 = Moderate
The stolen data includes birth dates, customer names, gender details, passwords, phone numbers and shopping or payment history. The incident is still under investigation and complete details have not been released.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Cyberattacks against service providers have been steadily increasing as cybercriminals strike at lynchpins to gain access to even more valuable data.
Germany – Crytek Studios
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/crytek-confirms-egregor-ransomware-attack-customer-data-theft/Exploit: Ransomware
Crytek Games: Game Studio
Risk to Business: 1.612 = Severe
German game developer Crytek has just disclosed that the Egregor ransomware gang breached its network in late 2020 obtaining client information, stealing proprietary data and encrypting systems. Files related to online FPS hit WarFace, development data on Crytek’s canceled Arena of Fate MOBA game, and documents with information on their network operations. The company downplayed the impact in a letter to potentially impacted individuals.
Risk to Business: 1.669 = Severe
The customer information exposed included players’ first and last name, job title, company name, email, business address, phone number and country. Impacted players have been sent a notification by mail.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware is the weapon of choice for both run-of-the-mill cybercriminals and nation-state threat actors. Every business needs to be ready for it.
Israel – Bar Ilan University
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/computer-hardware-giant-gigabyte-hit-by-ransomexx-ransomware/Exploit: Nation-State Hacking
Bar Ilan University: Institution of Higher Learning
Risk to Business: 1.111 = Severe
A cyberattack that targeted Israel’s Bar Ilan University over the weekend was likely launched by Chinese threat actors as part of a massive attack against Israeli targets in varied sectors. In a report released by FireEye, the incident is categorized as part of a large-scale Chinese attack on Israel, in itself part of a broader campaign that targeted Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Thailand.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Business: Nation-state threat actors frequently use ransomware to strike at their targets because it is cheap and effective.
Advanced Technology Ventures
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/03/atv-venture-capital-ransomware/
Exploit: RansomwareElectronic Arts (EA): Video Game Maker
Risk to Business: 1.207 = Extreme
Advanced Technology Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with more than $1.8 billion in assets under its management, has disclosed that it was hit by a ransomware attack. The cybercriminals were able to steal personal information about the company’s private investors. ATV said it became aware of the attack on July 9 after its servers storing financial information were encrypted by ransomware. By July 26, the company learned that its investor data had been stolen from the servers before the files were encrypted, a hallmark of the “double extortion” tactic used by ransomware groups.
Individual Risk: 1.326 = Extreme
Investor data was accessed by cybercriminals. ATV believes the names, email addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers of the individual investors in ATV’s funds were stolen in the attack. Some 300 individuals were affected by the incident
How It Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware tactics like double and triple extortion allow cybercriminals to score even bigger paydays, making them very popular techniques.
SeniorAdvisor
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/senior-citizens-personal-data/Exploit: Misconfiguration
SeniorAdvisor: Senior Care Review Site
Risk to Business: 1.663 = Severe
Researchers have discovered a misconfigured Amazon S3 bucket owned by SeniorAdvisor, a site that provides ratings and information for senior care facilities. The bucket in question contained the personal data of more than three million people categorized as “leads”. The team found around 2000 “scrubbed” reviews in the misconfigured bucket, in which the user’s sensitive information was wiped or redacted. In total, it contained more than one million files and 182GB of data, none of which was encrypted and did not require a password or login credentials to access.
Risk to Individual: 1.271 = Severe
This exposed bucket was full of data including names, emails, phone numbers and dates contacted for every person designated as a lead, comprising an estimated 3 million consumers.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Companies are under the gun for cybersecurity risk often enough without rookie mistakes like failing to secure a database contributing to the danger.
University of Kentucky
https://therecord.media/university-of-kentucky-discovers-data-breach-during-scheduled-pen-test/Exploit: Hacking
University of Kentucky: Institution of Higher Learning
Risk to Business: 2.223=Severe
In a head-shaking turn of irony, officials at the University of Kentucky discovered that they’d already been breached while conducting a penetration test. The breach affected the university’s Digital Driver’s License platform, a web-based portal the university developed as a component of its Open-Source Tools for Instructional Support (OTIS) framework. That program provides free online teaching and test-taking capabilities to K-12 schools and colleges in Kentucky and other US states. University officials said that their investigation discovered that an unknown threat actor accessed the system between January 8, 2021, and February 6, 2021, to gain access to the DDL platform and acquire a copy of its internal database.
Risk to Business: 2.223=Severe
The database contained the names and email addresses of students and teachers in Kentucky and in all 50 states and 22 foreign countries, in all more than 355,000 individuals. The university was careful to note that the stolen information included only emails and passwords and no SSNs or financial details were included.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Cybercriminals have been increasingly setting their sights on education targets since the onset of the global pandemic, and that trend is not stopping in 2021.
Reindeer
https://www.enterprisesecuritytech.com/post/defunct-marketing-company-leaked-the-sensitive-data-of-over-300-000-peopleExploit: Misconfiguration
Reindeer: Digital Marketing Firm
Risk to Business: 1.705 = Severe
New York-based digital media advertising and marketing company Reindeer left an unpleasant surprise behind when it closed its doors: an Amazon S3 bucket exposed to public access resulting in the irreversible leak of 50,000 files for a total of 32 GB of exposed data. The information exposed included about 1,400 profile photos and the details of approximately 306,000 customers in total. Users in 35 countries were represented with the US, Canada, and Great Britain accounting for almost 280,000 of those users. Nothing can be done to secure this data now.
Individual Risk: 1.622 = Severe
PII exposed includes customer names, surnames, email addresses, dates of birth, physical addresses, hashed passwords, and Facebook IDs for an estimated 306,000 customers.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Unexpected risks from sources like zombie accounts are around every corner, so taking that possibility seriously and mitigating risk from nasty surprises is critical.
School District No. 73 (SD73, Kamloops-Thompson)
Exploit: Nation-State HackingSchool District No. 73 (SD73, Kamloops-Thompson): Education Provider
Risk to Business: 2.911 = Moderate
School District No. 73 (SD73, Kamloops-Thompson) said it was notified that third-party service provider that it uses for travel and medical insurance provider for its international student program, guard.me, experienced a data breach that potentially exposed student information. Guard.me released a statement about the data security incident that spawned this data exposure, noting that the incident occurred during June 2021.
Risk to Business: 2.936 = Moderate
Student personal information that may be impacted by this incident includes identity information, contact information and other information provided to support submitted claims. impacted individuals are encouraged to visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre for further information about how to protect themselves.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Cyberattacks against service providers have been steadily increasing as cybercriminals strike at lynchpins to gain access to even more valuable data.
Italy – ERG
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/energy-group-erg-reports-minor-disruptions-after-ransomware-attack/Exploit: Ransomware
D-BOX: Gaming Specialty Electronics
Risk to Business: 1.919 = Severe
Italian energy company ERG reported minimal impact on infrastructure or consumer-facing services following a LockBit 2.0 ransomware incident. ERG is the leading Italian wind power operator and among the top ten onshore operators on the European market, with a growing presence in France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the United Kingdom. ERG was purchased by European power giant Enel earlier this week.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware is the weapon of choice for both run-of-the-mill cybercriminals and nation-state threat actors. Every business needs to be ready for it.
Taiwan – Gigabyte
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/computer-hardware-giant-gigabyte-hit-by-ransomexx-ransomware/Exploit: Misconfiguration
Gigabyte: Motherboard Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 1.602 = Severe
Motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte has been hit by the RansomEXX ransomware gang. The Taiwanese company was forced to shut down systems in Taiwan as well as multiple customer and consumer-facing websites of the company, including its support site and portions of the Taiwanese website. RansomEXX threat actors claimed to have stolen 112GB of data during the attack in an announcement on their leak site.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware operators are savvy to taking advantage of industries that are under stress as has been frequently exemplified in the last year.
Advanced Technology Ventures
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/03/atv-venture-capital-ransomware/
Exploit: RansomwareElectronic Arts (EA): Video Game Maker
Risk to Business: 1.207 = Extreme
Advanced Technology Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with more than $1.8 billion in assets under its management, has disclosed that it was hit by a ransomware attack. The cybercriminals were able to steal personal information about the company’s private investors. ATV said it became aware of the attack on July 9 after its servers storing financial information were encrypted by ransomware. By July 26, the company learned that its investor data had been stolen from the servers before the files were encrypted, a hallmark of the “double extortion” tactic used by ransomware groups.
Individual Risk: 1.326 = Extreme
Investor data was accessed by cybercriminals. ATV believes the names, email addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers of the individual investors in ATV’s funds were stolen in the attack. Some 300 individuals were affected by the incident
How It Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware tactics like double and triple extortion allow cybercriminals to score even bigger paydays, making them very popular techniques.
SeniorAdvisor
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/senior-citizens-personal-data/Exploit: Misconfiguration
SeniorAdvisor: Senior Care Review Site
Risk to Business: 1.663 = Severe
Researchers have discovered a misconfigured Amazon S3 bucket owned by SeniorAdvisor, a site that provides ratings and information for senior care facilities. The bucket in question contained the personal data of more than three million people categorized as “leads”. The team found around 2000 “scrubbed” reviews in the misconfigured bucket, in which the user’s sensitive information was wiped or redacted. In total, it contained more than one million files and 182GB of data, none of which was encrypted and did not require a password or login credentials to access.
Risk to Individual: 1.271 = Severe
This exposed bucket was full of data including names, emails, phone numbers and dates contacted for every person designated as a lead, comprising an estimated 3 million consumers.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Companies are under the gun for cybersecurity risk often enough without rookie mistakes like failing to secure a database contributing to the danger.
University of Kentucky
https://therecord.media/university-of-kentucky-discovers-data-breach-during-scheduled-pen-test/Exploit: Hacking
University of Kentucky: Institution of Higher Learning
Risk to Business: 2.223=Severe
In a head-shaking turn of irony, officials at the University of Kentucky discovered that they’d already been breached while conducting a penetration test. The breach affected the university’s Digital Driver’s License platform, a web-based portal the university developed as a component of its Open-Source Tools for Instructional Support (OTIS) framework. That program provides free online teaching and test-taking capabilities to K-12 schools and colleges in Kentucky and other US states. University officials said that their investigation discovered that an unknown threat actor accessed the system between January 8, 2021, and February 6, 2021, to gain access to the DDL platform and acquire a copy of its internal database.
Risk to Business: 2.223=Severe
The database contained the names and email addresses of students and teachers in Kentucky and in all 50 states and 22 foreign countries, in all more than 355,000 individuals. The university was careful to note that the stolen information included only emails and passwords and no SSNs or financial details were included.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Cybercriminals have been increasingly setting their sights on education targets since the onset of the global pandemic, and that trend is not stopping in 2021.
Reindeer
https://www.enterprisesecuritytech.com/post/defunct-marketing-company-leaked-the-sensitive-data-of-over-300-000-peopleExploit: Misconfiguration
Reindeer: Digital Marketing Firm
Risk to Business: 1.705 = Severe
New York-based digital media advertising and marketing company Reindeer left an unpleasant surprise behind when it closed its doors: an Amazon S3 bucket exposed to public access resulting in the irreversible leak of 50,000 files for a total of 32 GB of exposed data. The information exposed included about 1,400 profile photos and the details of approximately 306,000 customers in total. Users in 35 countries were represented with the US, Canada, and Great Britain accounting for almost 280,000 of those users. Nothing can be done to secure this data now.
Individual Risk: 1.622 = Severe
PII exposed includes customer names, surnames, email addresses, dates of birth, physical addresses, hashed passwords, and Facebook IDs for an estimated 306,000 customers.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Unexpected risks from sources like zombie accounts are around every corner, so taking that possibility seriously and mitigating risk from nasty surprises is critical.
School District No. 73 (SD73, Kamloops-Thompson)
Exploit: Nation-State HackingSchool District No. 73 (SD73, Kamloops-Thompson): Education Provider
Risk to Business: 2.911 = Moderate
School District No. 73 (SD73, Kamloops-Thompson) said it was notified that third-party service provider that it uses for travel and medical insurance provider for its international student program, guard.me, experienced a data breach that potentially exposed student information. Guard.me released a statement about the data security incident that spawned this data exposure, noting that the incident occurred during June 2021.
Risk to Business: 2.936 = Moderate
Student personal information that may be impacted by this incident includes identity information, contact information and other information provided to support submitted claims. impacted individuals are encouraged to visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre for further information about how to protect themselves.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Cyberattacks against service providers have been steadily increasing as cybercriminals strike at lynchpins to gain access to even more valuable data.
Italy – ERG
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/energy-group-erg-reports-minor-disruptions-after-ransomware-attack/Exploit: Ransomware
D-BOX: Gaming Specialty Electronics
Risk to Business: 1.919 = Severe
Italian energy company ERG reported minimal impact on infrastructure or consumer-facing services following a LockBit 2.0 ransomware incident. ERG is the leading Italian wind power operator and among the top ten onshore operators on the European market, with a growing presence in France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the United Kingdom. ERG was purchased by European power giant Enel earlier this week.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware is the weapon of choice for both run-of-the-mill cybercriminals and nation-state threat actors. Every business needs to be ready for it.
Taiwan – Gigabyte
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/computer-hardware-giant-gigabyte-hit-by-ransomexx-ransomware/Exploit: Misconfiguration
Gigabyte: Motherboard Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 1.602 = Severe
Motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte has been hit by the RansomEXX ransomware gang. The Taiwanese company was forced to shut down systems in Taiwan as well as multiple customer and consumer-facing websites of the company, including its support site and portions of the Taiwanese website. RansomEXX threat actors claimed to have stolen 112GB of data during the attack in an announcement on their leak site.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware operators are savvy to taking advantage of industries that are under stress as has been frequently exemplified in the last year.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) refers to any information maintained by an agency that can be used to identify or trace a specific individual. In other words, it includes data points, such as social security number, date of birth, mother's maiden name, biometric data, tax identification number, race, religion, location data and other information, that can be used to deanonymize anonymous data.
If your organization handles PII, you must take steps to secure your customer data. Not only is it essential from a compliance standpoint, but with security breaches on the rise, you have to make sure customer PII is not being compromised. Risk Based Security revealed that by the end of 2020, a total of 36 billion records had been exposed and compromised. Of such data breaches, 60 percent are caused by insider threats or security threats that originate from within an organization. To make things worse, reports indicate that the number of insider incidents has increased by 47 percent over the last two years.
Let's deep dive into the potential risks that insider threats pose to PII, especially for healthcare and financial institutions, and how you can protect your organization against such threats.
An insider threat is a security risk that originates from within your organization and is usually someone with authorized access misusing data (intentionally or unintentionally) to harm your company or your customers. The culprit could be any individual who has authorized access to confidential and sensitive company information, right from your present or former employees to consultants, partners or contractors.
If you don't secure your employee or customer PII, you leave yourself vulnerable to data breaches. Insider-led data breaches are widespread and can happen in multiple ways – from a negligent employee inadvertently downloading malicious malware to a disgruntled contractor selling customer data on the Dark Web to make money.
Insider-led data breaches are hard to detect because the threat actors have legitimate access and are probably familiar with your cybersecurity defense tools as well. It is much easier for them to circumvent your defenses, access sensitive customer data and expose it.
As a healthcare or financial institution, if your customer PII is exposed, it can cause a great deal of trouble to both your company and your customers. Let’s look at some of the potential risks:
With the insider threat landscape constantly evolving, businesses need to step up and secure PII and other sensitive data more effectively. By failing to do so, you could end up putting the future of your customers, employees and company in grave danger. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
Unsure about how you can protect Personally Identifiable Information? Get in touch with us today!
Article curated and used by permission.
Data Sources:
If your organization handles PII, you must take steps to secure your customer data. Not only is it essential from a compliance standpoint, but with security breaches on the rise, you have to make sure customer PII is not being compromised. Risk Based Security revealed that by the end of 2020, a total of 36 billion records had been exposed and compromised. Of such data breaches, 60 percent are caused by insider threats or security threats that originate from within an organization. To make things worse, reports indicate that the number of insider incidents has increased by 47 percent over the last two years.
Let's deep dive into the potential risks that insider threats pose to PII, especially for healthcare and financial institutions, and how you can protect your organization against such threats.
Potential Risks
An insider threat is a security risk that originates from within your organization and is usually someone with authorized access misusing data (intentionally or unintentionally) to harm your company or your customers. The culprit could be any individual who has authorized access to confidential and sensitive company information, right from your present or former employees to consultants, partners or contractors.
If you don't secure your employee or customer PII, you leave yourself vulnerable to data breaches. Insider-led data breaches are widespread and can happen in multiple ways – from a negligent employee inadvertently downloading malicious malware to a disgruntled contractor selling customer data on the Dark Web to make money.
Insider-led data breaches are hard to detect because the threat actors have legitimate access and are probably familiar with your cybersecurity defense tools as well. It is much easier for them to circumvent your defenses, access sensitive customer data and expose it.
As a healthcare or financial institution, if your customer PII is exposed, it can cause a great deal of trouble to both your company and your customers. Let’s look at some of the potential risks:
Risks to Your Company
Reputational damage
Financial loss
Ransomware costs
Operational standstill
Risks to Your Customers
Identity theft
Social engineering attacks
Blackmail campaigns
How to Secure PII
With the insider threat landscape constantly evolving, businesses need to step up and secure PII and other sensitive data more effectively. By failing to do so, you could end up putting the future of your customers, employees and company in grave danger. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Use behavioral analytics to set up unique behavioral profiles for all insiders and detect insiders accessing data not associated with their job functions.
- Implement access and permission controls to review, revise and restrict unnecessary user access privileges, permissions and rights.
- Review the PII data you have already collected, where it is stored and who has access to it, and then securely delete what is not necessary for the business to operate.
- Set up an acceptable PII usage policy that defines how PII data should be classified, stored, accessed and protected.
- Make sure your PII policy is compliant with different privacy and data regulations that apply to your business.
- Upgrade your storage holdings to ensure the data lives in a SOC2-protected data center.
- Cut down on inadvertent insiders by implementing mandatory cybersecurity and data security training programs.
- Make use of software that will help you protect PII.
Unsure about how you can protect Personally Identifiable Information? Get in touch with us today!
Article curated and used by permission.
Data Sources:
- https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/94076-the-top-10-data-breaches-of-2020#:
- https://securityintelligence.com/posts/what-are-insider-threats-and-how-can-you-mitigate-them/
- https://techjury.net/blog/insider-threat-statistics/#gref
- https://www.databreachtoday.com/whitepapers/ponemon-institute-study-reputation-impact-data-breach-w-540
- https://www.csoonline.com/article/3434601/what-is-the-cost-of-a-data-breach.html