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Infographic: Five vital steps to deal with a data breach

  • min read
    • Things can be frantic when you're dealing with a data breach. While swiftly diagnosing the problem and communicating clearly with everyone who needs to know, it's easy to miss something that could have serious consequences later. Use these five pointers to make sure you've done the right thing after a data breach. 1.  Assess the situation First, assess the data breach's risk to customers. Risk assessment lets you decide the next steps, including whether to report the breach. If it's a high risk to customers, you must inform them without undue delay, perhaps even before reporting to authorities. 2.  Be transparent and helpful Don't try to cover up the breach or hide details from those affected. If you hide things, you may see customers losing trust in your business on top of negative news coverage. When you tell customers what happened, give them advice on what to do next. 3.  Document everything Document every data breach, even if you don't have to report it. Record what happened, the steps you took and why the breach was reported or not reported. 4.  Learn from it Once you identify the cause, fix it. Next, make sure all staff receive training in how to prevent future breaches. Human error causes most data breaches. 5.  Make sure you notify everyone affected If you're processing data for other organizations, don't forget to tell them about the breach. They will have steps they must take too. Using these five pointers after a data breach will help your business get back on its feet sooner rather than later. Communicating swiftly and clearly with customers and partners is all-important in limiting the breach's impact on your business. It may happen to even the most cybersecurity-conscious organizations, but there's still a lot you can do to prepare. Equipping your employees with cybersecurity skills and knowledge is crucial to ensuring your customers' data stays safe in future.
dark web monitoring

How to make your business safer from dark web cybercrime

  • min read
    • The dark web may seem like a wild and lawless place, but a team of police officers in the north of England are getting creative to bust dark web crime. They've found ways to successfully identify criminals selling personal data, fake COVID-19 vaccines and child sexual abuse images. These ongoing advances in digital law enforcement show those who use the dark web for harmful activity are by no means safe. But too many businesses don't know what they can do to avoid having data stolen and sold on the dark web, and reduce the impact if it happens. What is the dark web, and why should business care? The dark web is a network of computers where web traffic is anonymized. Many use it to access marketplaces and other sites to commit crime. The FBI reports losses from fraud topped 4 billion US dollars in 2020. Because cybercriminals often go to the dark web to sell their ill-gotten data, businesses can reduce the time it takes to discover a data breach, costs and reputation damage with dark web monitoring. Kaspersky research found in 2021, the average cost for enterprises of a third-party data breach reached 1.4 million US dollars. What cybercriminals do with data on the dark web Much of its content is illegal but the dark web itself isn't. The dark web has legitimate uses: Dissidents, whistle-blowers and investigative journalists use it to communicate anonymously online. Others use it to avoid websites collecting their data. It uses the same infrastructure as the public internet, but you need special software like Tor ('the onion router') browser to access it. Servers connected to the dark web hide behind many layers of anonymity. Criminals also use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to hide transactions. Cybercriminals mostly attack for financial gain, and the dark web presents the perfect place to profit from stolen data. Sometimes, they hold victims to ransom, threatening to publicly expose their stolen materials – anything from explicit photos to bank account details. Dark web monitoring services: Are they worth it? Dark web monitoring services are often hyped after catastrophic data breaches. Consumer credit reporting firm Experian saw these breaches as a market opportunity, launching a dark web monitoring service. These services don't scan the full dark web – that would be almost impossible. Nor do they start takedown proceedings regarding stolen records or intellectual property. Once something is on an underground marketplace, there's often nothing you can do to stop it being sold or misused. Dark web monitoring can only detect publicly available information – scanners can't see anything shielded from scraping software. They're looking for big data dumps containing leaked personal information like passwords and card details. If cybercriminals steal your business information stolen and put it on the dark web, a dark web monitoring service will inform you, but only if they can see it. Are there better ways than dark web monitoring? There are many more effective ways to protect your business from dark web criminals, like encrypting all your data and educating employees on how to avoid accidentally giving cybercriminals access. But if you've had a breach, it's time to face facts: Your data is already stolen. If your sensitive information ends up on the dark web, monitoring may let you identify the breach and alert those whose information was stolen faster. Dark web monitoring also offers value by keeping business decision-makers informed of trends in underground communities that might compromise their security. For example, a monitoring service could reveal chatter about targeting a particular company in dark web forums, giving you a chance to prevent a breach. Business leaders looking for more reliable ways to tell if they've been hacked will be pleased to know some methods don't demand a monthly fee. Have I Been Pwned tells you if your email addresses or associated accounts are compromised. In the end, the only truly reliable way to find out if you've been hacked is to keep audit trails of activity across your network and every device connected to it. High-tech security solutions today, rather than just detecting known threats, let you search for suspicious activity like unusual computing tasks, strange network connections or unwanted software installations. No information security infrastructure is 100 percent unbreachable. If your organization does fall victim to a data breach, the sooner you learn of it, the better. A multi-layered, proactive approach to cybersecurity with full, real-time visibility of your digital assets is the best way to safeguard your business and customers.
Cyber Gaffes

Life’s a breach: 10 of the last decade’s biggest global cyberattacks

  • min read
    • This past decade has arguably been the biggest for digital advancements of all kinds, particularly cybersecurity. So why is it that we saw some of the biggest cybersecurity fails and data breaches? Let's go to the source. Data is the new oil Data's value is rocketing. So much so that in 2017 some experts believed it surpassed oil as one of the most valuable commodities across the world. It's no surprise then to know that in the first half of 2019, according to a survey by Kaspersky, nearly one million users' devices were attacked by malware designed to harvest data, in comparison to just under 600,000 users over the same time period the year before. But why is data so valuable? Because it can be sold in almost every form. For example, passport details can be sold to make fake passports, credit card numbers fetch upwards of $100, and if a hacker wants to make more from stolen information, they can sell full data sets. Referred to as 'fullz' (slang for full information), they typically contain an individual's name, birthdate, credit card number and social security number. The rounder, more plump the fullz, the more it's worth. You'd think that businesses would go over and above to protect their customers' data. Well yes, in the most part. But, there were times when professionals took their eye of the ball and things went a bit wrong. Let's take a look at 10 of the biggest data breaches this decade and what situation led up to this epic #FAIL in data security. Some resulted from lazy practices by the business, others from more sinister outside forces. (Disclaimer: they're in no particular order.) 1. Tesco Bank – many mistakes in store Date: 2016 Fail level: $3 million stolen from 9,000 Tesco Bank customer accounts Country: UK What was the cyber-fail? According to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, Brazilian cyberattackers generated their own Tesco Bank debit card numbers and, using those virtual cards, made thousands of unauthorized transactions from current customers. But when the bank's systems identified the threat, the team responsible sent an email to the wrong address instead of picking up the phone and explaining. So they only responded a cool 24 hours after the breach. But, instead of blocking the transactions in Brazilian real currency, they blocked the euro. As a result, the number of attacks rose even further. What were the consequences? Customers lost hard-earned cash and Tesco got fined nearly $20 million. 2. Yahoo! - the largest data breach of personal data. Ever. Date: 2013 Breach level: Personal data of three billion accounts breached Country: USA What was the cyber-fail? After digital thieves hacked Yahoo!'s servers, they cleaned up with a big bounty of personal data. Originally Yahoo! reported that the breach had affected one billion users, but after further investigations it later revised the estimate to say all three billion users were probably affected.  What were the consequences? At the time, Verizon were locked in for the acquisition of Yahoo! for nearly $5 billion… this 'little' data breach knocked $350 million of its sale price. 3. Marriot Group and Starwood - housing hackers for years Date: 2014-8 Breach level: Personal data of 500 million guests leaked Country: USA What was the cyber-fail? The cause of this one isn't so clear, although the New York Times have mused that it may have been a Chinese state cyberattack designed to gather intelligence. The fail is a little clearer: the breach actually occurred in 2014…but was only detected in 2018. Scary, really, considering their systems had alerted them to a potential breach when it first happened. Maybe their acquisition of Starwood around that time consumed most of their attention? What we do know is that leaving hackers to play in your system for four years is more than a little unfortunate. What were the consequences? Marriot Group was fined over $120 million. 4. Ashley Maddison – the wrong kind of indiscretion Date: 2016 Breach level: Personal data of 32 million cheating spouses leaked Country: USA What was the cyber fail? Some say that wherever there's sex, there's technology innovation. These next two examples show innovation – in cybercrime. For those not familiar, Ashley Maddison – owned by Avid Life Media (ALM) – was a dating website for married men and women looking to play away. That was until hackers, who go by the name of The Impact Team, gave them an ultimatum: take down the website or we'll expose every one of your users – personal details, log-ins and more. This wasn't an empty threat, as a statement of intent The Impact Team published a teaser: employee salaries and confidential internal business documents. Fair warning. Unfortunately, ALM ignored the threats and assured millions of users that their identities were secure. They were, in fact, not. Shortly afterwards, the inevitable happened. What were the consequences? Account details, log-ins and seven years' worth of credit card and other payment details leaked. Reported suicides from around the world as cheating spouses were exposed. As for Ashley Maddison, they agreed to pay a $1.6m fine for "lax security." 5. Adult Friend Finder Networks - a not-so-sexy data breach Date: 2016 Breach level: Personal data of 412 million accounts leaked Country: USA What was the cyber fail? The notoriously vulnerable SHA-1 hashing algorithm… not the most secure on the block. Adult Friend Finder (a sex and swingers website that also owned other sex cam websites) were, unwisely, using it to protect their entire user base until hackers broke through. According to LeakedSource, hackers were able to crack 99 percent of all passwords. Apart from their out-dated security measures, Adult Friend Finder assured users that if they deleted their account, their personal information would be deleted. That wasn't the case, which led to an additional 15 million 'deleted' accounts being purged. What were the consequences? With such a sensitive subject, if malicious hackers got their hands on the data it could've been used for blackmail or spam campaigns. 6.eBay - shopped for a cyber-fail Date: 2014 Breach level: Personal data of 145 million users leaked Country: USA What was the cyber-fail? It doesn't get much better than this: according to eBay, hackers jumped into their system using the credentials of three employees. The best bit? They had access for 229 days, as well as unprecedented access to complete data sets of eBay customers… ouch. What were the consequences? A decline in user activity and a somewhat miniscule drop in profits. Not a fine in sight. 7. Sony PlayStation - a (big) glitch in the mainframe Date: 2011 Breach level: Personal data of 77 million users leaked Country: UK What was the cyber-fail? It's not rocket science or the last level of Donkey Kong: well-known network vulnerabilities can wreak havoc. When Sony PlayStation had one in their ranks, hackers exploited it and made sure they paid the price. What were the consequences? Sony paid out $15 million in compensation – plus a few million dollars of legal fees. 8. Facebook – rigging all over the world Date: 2018 Breach level: Personal data of 50 million users leaked Country: USA What was the cyber-fail? Chances are you're already familiar with this one. Facebook changed their third-party rules in 2014, limiting developers to user data only. But Cambridge Analytica took it a bit further. They used quizzes to 'scrape' (or harvest, to you and me) data from users' entire friends lists. They managed to get 50 million complete data sets, which they allegedly used to influence the Clinton v Trump USA election and the Leave or Remain EU 'Brexit' vote in the UK. Evidence shows it could've started are early as 2015 but was only detected in 2018. Facebook's role? Well, they didn't ever ask Cambridge Analytica where they got the data from… so who knows how deep the mismanagement went. What were the consequences? Facebook shares plummeted 40 percent in three months after the event, but it gets worse – they're now staring down the barrel of a $5 billion fine. As for Cambridge Analytica, they're understandably not trading anymore. 9. British Airways – flying the flag for outdated cybersecurity Date: 2018 Breach level: Personal data of 500,000 thousand users leaked Country: UK What was the cyber-fail? This one, allegedly, lands on the Magecart cybercrime syndicate – specialists in planting malicious scripts onto websites to steal financial data and sell it on. In this instance, they made light work of British Airways' outdated cybersecurity defences, setting up a fake site and diverting the airline's website visitors into their trap. What were the consequences? BA were fined a record-breaking $221m (£183m) for not having the right data security measures in place. 10. ExPetr (AKA NotPetya) – the cyberattack that's bad for business Date: 2017 Breach level: Estimated $10 billion in damages. Country: Global What was the cyber-fail? Although the previous examples are all about data breaches that affected businesses and their customers, this cyberattack affected the businesses themselves. And it's arguably the costliest in history. ExPetr took its name from the resemblance to ransomware Petya, a piece of criminal code that encrypted files and extorted victims to pay for a key to unlock them. Unlike its predecessor, ExPetr irreversibly encrypted computers' master boot record, which essentially controls the operating system. The twist? Victims couldn't make payments to free themselves. There wasn't even a key to unscramble their computers. This attack had one goal: devastation. After being released into the wild, ExPetr originally targeted Linkos Group (a Ukranian software company) then quickly spread. From hospitals in Pennsylvania to a chocolate factory in Tasmania, the devastating effects were felt globally. What were the consequences? More than $10b in total damages (estimated by the White House.) But, aside from the financial blow, a few other things raised eyebrows. Reportedly, the Chernobyl nuclear plant's radiation-monitoring system went down temporarily. Protect your innovations from cyber-breaches In a nutshell: cyber-breaches are costly to businesses. How costly, you ask? Kaspersky have found that the average enterprise cyber-attack costs around $1.41m. The good news: some attacks are preventable. From money to marital status, your customer's data is at risk when cybersecurity measures aren't in place. The solution? Safeguard systems with top notch endpoint products and, perhaps more importantly, train colleagues to spot and know how to react when they see the first signs of a breach. This article represents the personal opinion of the author. Article published in 2019.
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Secure Futures magazine is your go-to business guide for opinions, trends and insight into the world of technology and cybersecurity. We help your business to bring on the future. Brought to you by Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity experts.

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