Protect the Enterprise! Why tolerate any risk when it is absolutely avoidable?
Whether you now it or not, you have probably been a victim of cybercrime! In a recent study, 90% of respondents said their company experienced a computer security incident within the past 12 months. An amazing 340,242,628 records containing personal information has been lost or stolen since January 2005 and every three seconds another identity is stolen. In April 2009, President Obama stated “It’s been estimated that last year alone, cyber criminals stole intellectual property from businesses worldwide worth up to $1 trillion.”
Recent studies state that the average number of records compromised in a single incident is 431,077 and the average company cost of a data breach has risen to $202 per customer record. Symantec found that in 2008, the average 2008 cost per incident of a data breach in the United States was $6.7 million, and lost business amounted to an average of $4.6 million. One-third of companies polled said that a major security breach could put their company out of business.
Think your world class organization with its extensive resources is an exception?That you’re protected from cybercrime? Think again. The following is a small sampling of world class organizations that have gone public with their breaches.
| Date of Breach | Company | Consequences |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2009 | Heartland | Multiple law suits filed. Estimated total cost of $12.6 million |
| May 2009 | Atena | Class-action suit filed in a Pennsylvania District Court |
| May 2009 | Kaiser Permanente | $187,500 fine for failing to prevent unauthorized access |
| May 2009 | Virginia Dept. of Health | $10,000,000 ransom demand & mailing individual notifications to 530,000 people |
| Dec 2009 | RBS Worldpay | $9 million stolen in a single day. Lawsuits filed. |
More notable breaches:
- ChoicePoint settles data security breach charges; pays $10 million in civil penalties, $5 million for consumer redress. At least 800 cases of identity theft arose from company’s data breach.
- The TJX Companies Inc. experienced an “unauthorized intrusion” into its computer systems. TJX has reported the cost to date at approximately $250 million.
An extensive list is available from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Why are we at risk of a data breach? Verizon in their 2009 Data Breach Report investigations, Verizon lists:
- 74% resulted from external sources
- 20% were caused by insiders
- 32% implicated business partners
- 39% involved multiple parties
- 67% were aided by significant errors
- 64% resulted from hacking
- 38% utilized malware
- 22% involved privilege misuse
- and, 87% were considered avoidable through simple or intermediate controls
Unauthorized access via default, shared, or stolen credentials constituted more than a third of the entire “hacking” category, and over half of all compromised records.
Still think your world class organization with its extensive resources
is secure and protected?
Sovay Human Authentication Platform: Risk Free Identification
