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NotPreparedforHacks.htmlData breaches are up and businesses aren't ready to deal with them
By Tom Risen
Hacking increased so much this past year that approximately half of U.S. adults had their information stolen and less than half of U.S. companies have taken enough precautions to protect consumer data, according to two studies released this week.
Recent months have been filled with reports about hackers stealing credit card data, online account passwords and other personal information from consumers. These included data breaches of networks at retailers like Target and Michaels, along with the Heartbleed security bug that made software vulnerable to spying and online theft. Last week, in one of the latest major security incidents, eBay urged its users to change their passwords "because of a cyberattack that compromised a database containing encrypted passwords and other non-financial data."
Approximately 110 million people, or 47 percent of adults, in the United States have had their personal information exposed by such attacks, according to a new study from CNNMoney and cybersecurity research firm the Ponemon Institute. Attacks will likely become more frequent as Internet and mobile device use grows, the report cautioned.
To make matters worse, companies are lagging behind trying to protect themselves, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2014 U.S. State of Cybercrime Survey published Wednesday. Less than half of companies in the survey took necessary steps to protect themselves. Only 38 percent prioritized security investments based on the risks to their businesses, and only 31 percent have a security strategy for the rapidly growing mobile sector.
Businesses are unprepared in part because of poor cybersecurity training at colleges, says Alan Paller, co-chair of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Task Force on CyberSkills, which advises how to train cybersecurity professionals. Security training was not provided for new employees at 54 percent of the businesses in the PricewaterhouseCoopers survey. "Colleges are creating people who can tell you about security but they cannot fix the system," says Paller, founder of the SANS Institute cybersecurity training organization.
Many cybersecurity specialists with practical computer expertise "are not coming out of academia," Paller adds. Rather, "they are a lot of self-taught people," he says.
Failure to protect a network from security gaps at partner companies is also a problem, as only 27 percent of firms have incident-response plans in place with businesses in their supply chain, and only 44 percent evaluate the cybersecurity of third-party companies they work with, the PricewaterhouseCoopers survey showed. The five most used hacks reported were malware, phishing emails that send malicious links, network interruption, spyware that tracks computer activity, and denial-of-service attacks that overload online servers.
In recent months, Congress has hammered retailers, including Target, for failing to prevent data breaches, but lawmakers have yet to pass legislation that would set cybersecurity standards for businesses.
In the mean time, the Obama administration has encouraged companies to share information about online threats. Some retailers -- including Target, Gap and Nike -- have partnered with the Retail Industry Leaders Association to form the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center to advise each other of potential threats.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) "Not Prepared for Hacks." U.S. News & World Report Weekly, 30 May 2014. Educators Reference Complete, http://link.galegroup.com.prx-herzing.lirn.net/apps/doc/A510389258/GPS?u=lirn50909&sid=GPS&xid=358bc79e. Accessed 23 Jan. 2018.Gale Document Number: GALE|A510389258
