Ransomware is the single greatest risk your company faces – here’s why

You read that correctly: ransomware is the single greatest risk to your company. Even in times of the COVID-19 global pandemic, ransomware is still the one risk where, tonight, the company CEO can lay her head down on her pillow with the company doing fine, profits up and operations running smoothly, and then wake up …

Healthcare Providers – Are You Prepared for Hackers to Tell Your Patients About Your Ransomware and Data Breach?

If you are a healthcare provider, you need to prepare yourself now for the new reality that, when hackers get into your network, they will contact your patients to put pressure on you to pay their ransom demands — usually after they have encrypted your network. Here is an example from a recent case that …

Is #ShameHacking Coming Next? Hackers Breach Search Engine for Japanese Sex Hotels

Life is short – it is shorter when hackers tell your spouse Shame hacking — the use, or threatened use, of purportedly hacked data for embarrassing or extorting people by threatening to expose such compromising data if they do not comply with the demands made of them — is a thing. A search engine for …

Data is the hot potato!

During a presentation recently, I was trying to make a point about the liability that comes with data and, therefore, the need for us to never forget that in cybersecurity our ultimate goal is protecting systems and data. I used the little line at the end of this quote: Data equals risk. It is toxic …

Do data breaches have consequences? Will Equifax CIO serve jail time for insider trading?

“Corporate insiders who learn inside information, including information about material cyber intrusions, cannot betray shareholders for their own financial benefit.” Richard R. Best, SEC – Atlanta Division For years many in the cybersecurity/data breach space have been saying that somebody is going to have to go to jail before corporate decision-makers begin to take cybersecurity …

Do data breaches have consequences? Law firm closes due to irreparable damages to its reputation

The once prestigious 40-year law firm Mossack Fonseca, infamously known for its data breach that revealed the Panama Papers, is closing at the end of the month. The reason, in its words: “The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, whose obligatory …

Marine corp data breach lesson: human error is often the cause and is preventable

There has been a data breach emanating from the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve that impacted 21,426 individuals. The breach exposed their sensitive personal information such as truncated social security numbers, bank electronic funds transfer and bank routing numbers, truncated credit card information, mailing address, residential address and emergency contact information. Calm down and press the …

What is “reasonable cybersecurity” and how do courts view it? (SecureWorld interviews)

What is “reasonable cybersecurity” and how do courts view “reasonable cybersecurity”? See KnowB4’s discussion of these interviews These are two excellent questions that I was asked and I answered, as succinctly as I could, in two short interviews with SecureWorld. Tell me what you think about my answers. What Is Reasonable Cybersecurity? – SecureWorld article …

Uber’s CISO Makes Case for Uniform National Data Breach Notification Law

Uber’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), John Flynn, made a case for a uniform national data breach notification law in his testimony to members of Congress (see penultimate paragraph of full written testimony): I would like to conclude by stating that we strongly support a unified, national approach to data security and breach standards. We are …

State data breach notification law mishmash would get worse with proposed NC and SD legislation — is instant notification by clairvoyant next?

The push for a single uniform national data breach notification law gained strength in the wake of the Equifax breach. Now proposed legislation in North Carolina would amend its law in a way that would add momentum to this push. And, now South Dakota is tired of being one of only two states without a …