In 2015, small, medium and large corporations can face daily cyber threats from insider threats in the form of disillusioned employees, malicious and non-malicious hackers, and even nation states. What steps can executives take to reduce their risk and decrease liability? What are the expenses associated with protecting data? Even more compelling, what are the costs of a data breach?
Recent data breaches have targeted large companies such as Target, J.P. Morgan Chase and Google, as well as federal organizations like the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). These breaches have triggered questions about the cybersecurity of entities with access to highly sensitive information. Even without highly sensitive data, all companies face threats of corporate espionage such as the stealing of data files, customer records, processes and product lists. Ineffective security leaves financial information, medical records, addresses, and more exposed to hackers, and represents the greatest vulnerability of American businesses today. Cyberforce Security: Risk and Mitigation, a one-day course hosted by The University of Alabama Cyber Institute (UACI) and the College of Continuing Studies (CCS), will educate C-level employees on steps they can take to protect their companies from cyberattacks and how to avoid unnecessary litigation.
No network compromise is insignificant and each one aims to harm retailers, banks, insurance companies, international firms and more. Target lost the credit card information of 40 million people and later came to a $10 million settlement deal with victims. The accounts of 76 million households and seven million small businesses were affected by the J.P. Morgan Chase hack targeting the country’s largest bank. Five million Gmail usernames and passwords were compromised in the Google breach.
Perhaps the most severe breaches were announced during late Spring and Summer 2015. These breaches, likely perpetrated by foreign hackers, were collectively referred to as the “OPM hack.” OPM has recruited and supported federal employees from all agencies since 1978. In April, OPM discovered hackers had stolen the personnel data of 4.2 million current and former federal workers. Further investigation revealed even more information had been lost than initially thought. In June, OPM admitted that 21.5 million background investigation files on current, former and prospective employees were also hit in the cyberattack. This suggests that in addition to garage hackers, sophisticated cyber criminals and disgruntled employees, corporations must now also guard against nation states. The costs associated with combatting these threats are staggering to most businesses.
The pace of innovation and creativity of malicious cyber actors has drastically outpaced the evolution of cyber security measures. Most companies scramble to react when blindsided by a security breach because they lack any anticipatory strategies to predict and prevent breaches before they happen.
Bama At work , professional developemt and conference services division of The University of Alabama is proud to offer on January 21, 2016 the Cyberforce Security: Risk and Mitigation course to help C-level executive understand the importance of the cybersecurity process for their organization. More information is available on our website.
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Article by David W. Aucsmith, President of Aucsmith Consulting and Mark M. Lowenthal, Ph.D., CEO of the Intelligence and Security Academy.