According to the Washington Post the breach involved data mined from the reservations database for Starwood properties. This is one of the biggest data breaches in history. According to Marriott’s admission the stolen data could be a combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information and payment card numbers.
This will affect many people going forward and is a strong reminder that having data breach insurance is imperative in today’s business world.
Hackers launched an extortion attack against the two banks, threatening to release customer data to the internet where it could be used for further identity theft. The banks went public and now there are a lot of worried account holders. According to the CBC there could be up to 90,000 people affected.
If the banks, with their security features are targets, how up to date are your defences? What kind of insurance do you have if something gets your client data?
The City of Atlanta’s Computer Systems Were Down for Five Days
According to the New York Times, the City of Atlanta was hit with a crippling ransomware attack. These kinds of attacks leave a victim’s data encrypted until a payment is received to free the data again.
The article quotes the Mayor of Atlanta, Keisah Lance Bottoms, “We are dealing with a hostage situation.”
When the Big Banks Feel the Threat of Cyber Attacks They Move to Act
We’ve been saying this for a few years now, but Cyber attacks, hacks, and threats are real and cause significant damage to a business that falls victim to a privacy breach. This CBC article highlights the efforts of research at the University of Waterloo into developing defences against cyber incursions.
Three projects – using machine learning and AI to target threats, developing safety and security of consumer data, and one using advanced mathematics and computer science to increase encryption methods – will help defend everyone’s data in the future.
CBC Reports Hacked Information Includes Name, Email, User Names and Phone Numbers
Reading further herethe telecom giant had to send out notices to the affect clients. Imagine the cost of that notice? Even if the cost is only 20 cents per client that’s still a $20,000 expense!
