As data breaches become more common and larger in scale, companies that hold private, sensitive, or financial information need not ask if, but when someone will attempt to hack them.
There is big money on the dark net in selling stolen info.
For instance a stolen credit card will sell for about a dollar on the black market. Add more data to that card however and the price jumps, about 5 times for each piece. Card and address? $5. Card with address, phone, SSN and DOB? Could go for up to $625!
Needless to say there is plenty of incentive for Black hat hackers to steal data.
Companies have a responsibility to keep clients and customers data protected.
Marriott hotels(technically the Starwood Hotel chain) announced on 11/30/2018 that their database was hacked again after several other breaches over the last few years. This time they made off with a massive amount of consumer info. This particular hack they discovered, had been going on for 4 years!
In the case of the Marriott beach, approx 500 Million customers data was hacked. This included payment information, names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and passport numbers, DOB,and SSN numbers.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is already calling for Marriott to pay for replacement passports for all that are affected.
2 parties have already come forward to begin a class action lawsuit reportedly in the neighborhood of 12 Billion Dollars.
Its important to update your systems, programs, and passwords on a regular basis. If you have especially sensitive data, your company needs to go beyond regular security measures to protect it.
If your company is targeted in a hack, your can be liable for the damages for all parties with compromised information and depending on what the breach contains, this can add up quickly.
Take a moment to check or change your passwords today, update your software, get a quality anti-malware program, and conduct a quick cyber security audit of your company.
You never know who may have access to your system.