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Equifax CEO resigned just before testifying over colossal data breach

Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith’s retirement, just days before he was scheduled to testify over the huge data breach at court, has generated a lot of criticism. Although his resignation can be deemed as a positive reaction to the breach that reportedly exposed the details of some 143 million individuals, prosecutors are condemning it as not enough to make up for the “travesty”.

It’s thought that some 209,000 credit card numbers were compromised in the breach, with some belonging to U.K. customers. Reports suggest that Smith will be “keeping $18 million in pension benefits and possibly $30 million in stock options.”
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Celebrity Steve Coogan awarded six-figure sum in damages for phone hacking scandal

Known for his portrayal of fictional character Alan Partridge, comedian Steve Coogan was the victim of a hacking scandal that led to details of his personal life published in newspapers, revealing intimate information about his family life, sexual encounters and alleged drug use.

Coogan is amongst dozens of other celebrities who have settled damages claims against Mirror Group Newspaper for reportedly hacking their phones to obtain private information to seemingly publish it in the media and, we assume, sell more papers.

It was a horrid scandal, and the levels of damages awarded goes to show the extent the courts are prepared to go to when people are the victim of malicious hacking.
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Despite data breaches spike most U.K. businesses are confident in preparedness of a breach

This year has seen some of the biggest data breaches and hacks ever seen. Only this summer we witnessed NHS computers attacked by malware demanding a ransom, forcing many hospitals and surgeries to practically shut down across the U.K.

The business sector has also suffered their fair amount of data breaches this year as well. Experts are forever telling us that cybercriminals continue to evolve their techniques, but despite these warnings, businesses are reportedly “gravely optimistic about their ability to deter and cope with malicious attacks.”

Its hardly convincing, is it?
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Aetna sued for revealing HIV statuses of 12,000 patients

Health insurer, Aetna Inc, is being sued for a serious oversight that reportedly revealed the HIV status of around 12,000 patients when a letter was sent out to customers with large clear windows that referenced HIV medication.

It’s a monumental blunder that’s similar to the London sexual health clinic, 56 Dean Street breach, where an email was sent to over 700 patients with names and email addresses for recipients visible. We act for a large proportion of the people claiming in that action.

The clear window is of course intended to be clear, so the address is shown for posting, but this doesn’t change the fact that the letter clearly hadn’t been properly planned out given that private medical information was visible too.
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Employees reportedly need updated data security training

As technology in industry improves, many employees are being provided with more and more advanced devices and software to help for a more efficient workplace. From unified portals to mobile devices, employees are often given shiny new tools to work with all the time; but do they know how to use them safely?

A significant proportion of data breaches can result from employee mistakes: from accidental emails being sent, to uploading information online, and hackers targeting vulnerabilities to gain entry into customer databases. Cybersecurity experts have long identified employees as one of the weakest links when it comes to securing data in organisations.
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‘Park By Text’ customers may have been impacted by data breach

The mobile parking service – Park By Text – allows users of certain car parks to pay on their smartphones have announced they’ve been subject to a cyberattack, and customers may have had personal information stolen as a result.

Park By Text reportedly discovered malicious software in their systems after a service outage. The company says they do not think any customer information was stolen, but “cannot say this with 100% certainty at this stage”, or at least until investigations come to a close.
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Security experts call for faster detection of data breaches

Data breaches seem to be constantly in the news and they seem to be getting bigger, more frequent and more sophisticated.

So, can anything be done to stop them?

While there may be no definitive method to stop all data breaches completely, there are steps which can be taken to help detect them quicker. Of course, it would be preferable to prevent them from happening in the first place, but security experts like Paul White recognise that detection is an imperative part of cybersecurity as well.
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2017 sees a record high in data breaches

It’s not unusual for us to blog about the continual rise of data breaches. It’s a hot topic, and the trend is undeniably worrying.

2017 has reportedly seen a record high in data breaches, and there’s no signs of slowing down.

Cybersecurity specialists Risk Base Security conducted a mid-year report, and the results are staggering. As of June 30^th, there have been 2,227 public data breaches reported. In just six months, a whopping 6 billion records were stolen; that’s reportedly more than the number of stolen records for the whole of 2016.
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Data breaches are on the rise and statistics show it will only get worse

In the past few years, we’ve seen an unprecedented rise in data breaches and there are no signs that things are slowing down.

Statistics show that every year we see more and more data breaches, which can only make us wonder; can we ever be truly safe from a data breach?

With the number of data breaches and the staggering volume of personal information compromised with every breach, it’s probably safe to say that most of us will have some kind of information exposed at some point; and probably more than once.
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Equifax admits hacking may have exposed 145 million customers’ personal information

Consumer credit reporting agency, Equifax, has been subject to a hacking that may have led to vital information being stolen, including the following: Full names; Birth dates; Postal addresses; Social Security details; Driver’s Licence numbers.

Reuters reports that some 209,000 consumers’ credit card information may have been accessed.

This is a breach on a monumental scale, and legal action will no doubt follow the incident. This breach is all over the news, and has been deemed as “one of the largest data breaches” to have occurred.
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