Jason Hart

Author Archives: Jason Hart

IDG Contributor Network: Data breaches: It’s still personal

In a blog post last September, I highlighted how data breaches for the first half of 2016 shifted from stolen credit card data and financial information to the theft of something much more personal—identities. Unsurprisingly, this trend continued throughout the remainder of the year.According to the recently released Breach Level Index, 1,792 data breaches led to almost 1.4 million data records being compromised worldwide, an increase of 86 percent compared to 2015. Once again, identity theft was the leading type of data breach last year, accounting for 59 percent of all data breaches. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Data breaches: It’s still personal

In a blog post last September, I highlighted how data breaches for the first half of 2016 shifted from stolen credit card data and financial information to the theft of something much more personal—identities. Unsurprisingly, this trend continued throughout the remainder of the year.According to the recently released Breach Level Index, 1,792 data breaches led to almost 1.4 million data records being compromised worldwide, an increase of 86 percent compared to 2015. Once again, identity theft was the leading type of data breach last year, accounting for 59 percent of all data breaches. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 2017 breach predictions: The big one is inevitable

We’ve reached that time of year where everyone in the security industry is pulling together predictions for what we expect to see over the next year, and/or slowly backing away from any imperfect predictions we might have put forth the year before.Last year, I offered up a number of predictions, but the one continuing to make huge waves in 2017 is around data integrity attacks. Quite simply, I expect that we’ll see more intricate, complex and undetected data integrity attacks and for two main reasons: financial gain and/or political manipulation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 2017 breach predictions: The big one is inevitable

We’ve reached that time of year where everyone in the security industry is pulling together predictions for what we expect to see over the next year, and/or slowly backing away from any imperfect predictions we might have put forth the year before.Last year, I offered up a number of predictions, but the one continuing to make huge waves in 2017 is around data integrity attacks. Quite simply, I expect that we’ll see more intricate, complex and undetected data integrity attacks and for two main reasons: financial gain and/or political manipulation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Securing the breach trumps breach prevention

In my prior posts, I discussed both the changing face of data breaches and the reality distortion field surrounding today’s IT security professionals when they talk about effective ways to combat data breaches. Three things we know for certain, though, is that data breaches are not going away, our adversaries are continuing to innovate and attack, and the costs of a breach are becoming more tangible.Just this month, Verizon claimed the massive hack on Yahoo caused irreparable harm to the tech company in terms of customer trust, possibly allowing the wireless provider to withdraw from or renegotiate the terms of its $4.83 billion acquisition agreement. Also, in October, the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office hit TalkTalk with more than $400,000 in fines for its 2015 cyber attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Securing the breach trumps breach prevention

In my prior posts, I discussed both the changing face of data breaches and the reality distortion field surrounding today’s IT security professionals when they talk about effective ways to combat data breaches. Three things we know for certain, though, is that data breaches are not going away, our adversaries are continuing to innovate and attack, and the costs of a breach are becoming more tangible.Just this month, Verizon claimed the massive hack on Yahoo caused irreparable harm to the tech company in terms of customer trust, possibly allowing the wireless provider to withdraw from or renegotiate the terms of its $4.83 billion acquisition agreement. Also, in October, the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office hit TalkTalk with more than $400,000 in fines for its 2015 cyber attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Data breaches: This time it’s more personal

Summer 2016 was not a good time for data breaches.First, news broke that the Democratic National Committee was hacked, leading to the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and driving a wedge between Democratic Party members.Later, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that Russian hackers had illegally accessed its Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) database, leaking confidential medical information for U.S. athletes, including Simone Biles and Serena Williams.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Data breaches: This time it’s more personal

Summer 2016 was not a good time for data breaches.First, news broke that the Democratic National Committee was hacked, leading to the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and driving a wedge between Democratic Party members.Later, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that Russian hackers had illegally accessed its Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) database, leaking confidential medical information for U.S. athletes, including Simone Biles and Serena Williams.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: IT security’s reality distortion field

Despite increasing data breaches (a whopping 4.7 billion data records worldwide being lost or stolen since 2013) and mounting regulatory and customer pressures around data protection, IT decision makers worldwide continue to ignore reality and rely on the same breach prevention strategies when it comes to protecting customer data and information. Today’s IT security professional clearly has a “reality distortion field” when it comes to the effectiveness of perimeter security. According to a recent survey of IT decision makers worldwide, one-third of organizations experienced a data breach in the past 12 months. Yet, while 86 percent of organizations have increased perimeter security spending, 69 percent are not confident their data would be secure if perimeter defenses were breached. This is up from 66 percent in 2015 and 59 percent in 2014. Furthermore, 66 percent believe unauthorized users can access their network, and nearly two in five (16 percent) said unauthorized users could access their entire network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here