With the attack on the City of Atlanta, hackers targeting critical infrastructure shouldn’t come as a shock. Long gone are the days of hackers only targeting credit card information; they are looking to disrupt the things we take for granted—and right now hackers are feeding off third-party access to critical infrastructure.

If you have already moved on from the Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor breach that broke earlier this week affecting 5 million credit cards, don’t worry, another breach happened to other well-known corporations. This breach affected more people and their personal information, and it all stemmed from a third party.

Grab a burger at Sonic or roast beef sandwich from Arby’s and watch a new episode streaming on Netflix in your hotel room—what do these consumer-related activities have in common? Each retail business was hacked through a third party connection in the last year.

A recent study indicated that healthcare data breaches are at a four-year low. However, this statistic is pretty misleading. Why? Because so far, the number of breaches are pretty on-par with past years.

E-commerce gives consumers convenience, selection, and the belief that their online purchase is secure. Regulations developed by credit card companies require business owners to ensure their point of sale (POS) and other network capabilities are maintained in a secure environment.

Rapidly developing technology means consumers in the finance industry look for fast, personalized service. These new opportunities drive business development—but they also drive the risk of data loss and non-compliance. In late 2017, consumer credit agency and data aggregator, Equifax, revealed a severe data loss caused by sloppy security measures.

Do you know how many vendors are accessing your network? Is someone in your organization following vendor movements in your system, and controlling their logins?

 

Accomplished Healthcare IT Expert, Mark Clark, Appointed to Accelerate Growth in International Market

Caution is needed when granting any user access to your network. But you need to be really careful when providing privileged access to your network. What’s the difference?

As the deadline for compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) approaches, it is critical to remember you are liable for the compliance of your vendor partners as well.