30 Million Files Compromised
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It is a data breach of staggering proportions. In one incident, 30 million personal files have been compromised:
“Confidential data on 30 million German phone users could be consulted on the Internet as a result of an error until the phone company locked access, a spokesman for Deutsche Telekom said Saturday.”
link: Error puts data on 30 million German phone users on Internet
If Deutsche Telekom follows protocol, it will offer free credit monitoring to those people who had their personal information compromised. The fee for a year of credit monitoring is approximately ten dollars. If just half of the people impacted by this security breach use this identity theft protection, the immediate aftermath could cost Deutsche Telekom in the neighborhood of a hundred and fifty million dollars ($150,000,000.00). And then, there will be the personal and class action lawsuits that will follow.
Catherine Forsythe
2 Comments
John Franks
October 12th, 2008
at 9:13am
These data breaches and thefts are due to a lagging business culture. As CIO, I’m always looking for ways to help my team, business teams, and ad hoc measures of various vendors, contractors and interal team members. A book that is required reading (specific chapters, depending on nature of projects and teams) is “I.T. Wars: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium.” It has a great chapter regarding security (among others).
We keep a few copies kicking around - it would be a bit much to expect outside agencies to purchase it on our say-so. But, particularly when entertaining bids for projects, we ask potential solutions partners to review relevant parts of the book, and it ensures that these agencies understand our values and practices.
The author, David Scott, has an interview here that is a great exposure: http://businessforum.com/DScott_02.html
The book came to us as a tip from one of our interns who attended a course at University of Wisconsin, where the book is in use; I like to pass along things that work, in the hope that good ideas continue to make their way to me. I hope you can make use of this info…
Stephen Jared
October 13th, 2008
at 1:19am
As one whose online bank account has been hacked twice, I’d like to pass on an article on the defects of the usual username/password security: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6762995-1.html?tag=feat.1
Accessing your account from within the bank itself seems to be a safe option.