Posts about Cybersecurity by Professor Daniel J. Solove for his blog at TeachPrivacy, a privacy awareness and security training company.
Every year, we hear about how climate change is worsening. It seems the same story is happening with data security. Last year was the worst year in recorded data breach history. More than 5,200 breaches were reported in 2017, with more than 7.8 billion records compromised. By comparison, there are 7.6 billion people on Earth, […]
Recently, HBO suffered a massive data breach. The hackers stole unreleased episodes of Game of Thrones and have been leaking them before they are broadcast. Episodes of other shows were also stolen. The hackers grabbed 1.5 terabytes of data including sensitive internal documents.
According to a recent Ponemon Institute study, the odds of an organization having a data breach are 1 in 4. The study also found that the average cost of a data breach is $3.62 million in 2017. That’s a drop of 10%, but the size of data breaches has increased. The Human Problem The vast […]
As the FBI warned, ransomware has proven to be a formidable threat costing businesses over $1 billion in 2016, averaging 4,000 attacks per day. Ransomware forces victims to choose between losing access to their files or paying a fee that can range between hundreds and thousands of dollars. Ransomware has already made headlines in the first […]
Misspelled words and bad grammar are tell-tale signs of phishing. Why don’t phishers learn spelling and grammar? Can’t they afford a copy of Strunk and White? Phishers don’t need to spell better because their poorly-written schemes still fool enough people. It’s just math for the phishers — a numbers game. If you handle IT […]
Last year, major incidents involving law firm data breaches brought attention to the weaknesses within law firm data security and the need for more effective plans and preparation. An American Bar Association (ABA) survey reveals that 26% of firms (with more than 500 attorneys) experienced some sort of data breach in 2016, up from 23% in 2015.
A while ago, I wrote about a case involving a member of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team staff who improperly accessed a database of the Houston Astros. There is now an epilogue to report in the case. The individual who engaged in the illegal access — a scouting director named Chris Correa — […]
It’s time for a third installment of the funniest hacker stock photos. Because I create information security awareness training (and HIPAA security training too), I’m always in the hunt for hacker photos. There are so many absurd ones that I can make enough Funniest Hacker Stock Photo posts to keep pace with Disney in making […]
Harm has become the key issue in data breach cases. During the past 20 years, there have been hundreds of lawsuits over data breaches. In many cases, the plaintiffs have evidence to establish that reasonable care wasn’t used to protect their data. But the cases have often been dismissed because courts conclude that the […]
Hacking is easy. My latest cartoon is based on the fact that many hacking attacks involve rather simple and common tactics. Why try the hard stuff when the easy stuff works so well? All it takes is for one person to fall for a social engineering trick, and the hackers can break in.