As the world stood still and focused on the historical inauguration of President Obama, there quietly came news of the largest single data infringement in history. Heartland Payment Systems, which processes payments for over 250,000 businesses, may have compromised potentially hundreds of millions of credit and debit card transactions, making it one of the most significant data breaches ever reported. After calling the U.S. Secret Service and hiring two breach forensic teams to conduct an investigation, it was found that malware planted on the company's payment processing network was the source of the data breach.
The decision to release the news of the breach could be viewed as a way to cover up the magnitude of what had taken place, or to avoid negative press. Although this information was not immediately publicized when Heartland initially became aware of the problem in 2008, there will be lots of attention that brings it to light once the inevitable law suits arise. In similar news, USAJobs.gov and Monster.com are two other high profile cases that were targeted by hackers, who stole large volumes of customer data via an automated and malicious Trojan-horse program.
If these incidents are beginning trends indicative of 2009, data loss prevention and information security should be on the top of every IT to-do list. A failure to secure the data of the customer is apathetic amongst enterprises and could be seen as gross incompetence, resulting in the collapse of the business following litigation and loss of revenues. Data is the most important entity that can make or break a company.
Traditional methods of data storage using memory sticks, tapes, CDs, and hard drives are no longer secure. Using tape (the most common) as a data backup or disaster recovery solution poses a serious threat; as tapes often have to be transported to an offsite storage facility. While in transit, the tapes might be damaged, lost, misplaced, stolen or inadvertently discarded. To make matters worse, most of the time the data is unencrypted. Encrypting data ensures its safety and protection in the event of theft or data loss.
Use a remote backup service provider who has expertise in disaster recovery consulting as the most reliable solution for data breach prevention and backing up sensitive information. The virtual management provided by a remote backup service provider allows for endless storage capacity and server consolidation. Most importantly, data is sent directly to an offsite storage vault where it is compressed and encrypted and guaranteed confidential, safe and secure.
Fact: According to a report by TrendMicro, annual computer virus damages to U.S. businesses total $55 billion. Even equipped with the latest antivirus software, viruses continue to pose a serious threat to your most valuable business asset.