In this second part of a two part series we will be taking a look at how online retailers are taking steps to mitigate against the almost inevitable threat to data from hackers that seems part and parcel of the holiday buying season.
Cyber Security
Cyber criminals, state-sponsored hackers and even the occasional disgruntled employee are constantly looking to gain unauthorized access for a variety of purposes: theft of money, cyber espionage, personal information for sale or for use in scams, and damage to critical infrastructure for just a few of the most common.
So how does an organization mitigate an entire world full of continual cyber attacks? Just as buildings have a number of necessary elements of physical security: access control, cameras, alarms and so on; there are similar key elements of cyber security that are absolutely vital for just about any modern business.
It starts with identifying and closing the most common doors that attackers use. For example, phishing attacks on employees are far and away the most common initial point of entry. The breach of even a low-level employee account can quickly turn into an escalation in access privileges and the ability to reach sensitive information. This is also true of smart devices, which are generally more poorly secured than computers and phones.
A ransomware attack has struck the New York Blood Center, disrupting collection and distribution across 200 hospitals across the Northeast, amid ongoing shortages.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a moment of truth for companies in business resilience. The need for digital-first businesses that are customer-centric, data-driven, and deliver fast time to value which was an option is now an imperative.
Twilio said that the data of 125 customers was accessed by the threat actors for some amount of time. Privacy messaging app Signal has indicated that the attackers had some level of access to about 1,900 registered phone numbers.
Recent research shows that one third of enterprises lose more than 10% of their associated technology assets when offboarding workers, and 42% experience unauthorized access to SaaS applications and cloud resources.
Recent SEC filing disclosed that 18,000 customers installed the SolarWinds backdoor while Microsoft said that it alerted 40 customers targeted by the Russian state-sponsored hackers.
Holiday Shopping ID Theft Survey revealed that consumers are more concerned about retail data breaches, are more aware of identity protection services, and has embraced online shopping largely due to the pandemic.
A multinational cybersecurity advisory warned that cyber attacks on managed service providers (MSPs) could enable supply chain attacks, ransomware, and cyber espionage downstream.
The CFAA case of Van Buren v. U.S. has concluded with a decision resulting in a clarification of how crimes involving "authorized access" are defined.
State-sponsored hackers from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are exploiting Windows shortcut files to execute malicious commands for cyber espionage.










