Data breaches occur every day. You hear about them in your local community, national businesses and places you may frequent online. In a recent Gallup poll of 1,000 individuals, only 21% indicated they have “a lot of trust” in the businesses that handle their personal information. Some 47% reported having “some trust.” The remainder of the group, roughly 30% said …
4 Steps to Protect Customer Information
More fallout for the country’s second-largest health insurer, Anthem, after the company announced a massive data breach in early February potentially affecting 80 million of its customers. In Nebraska alone, more than 100,000 affected residents are being notified of the breach via mail. Experts now say the cyber-attack could be far worse than previous breaches affecting retail and home improvement …
Why It’s Never a Good Idea to Sell Your Cell Phone
If you sell your old cell phone and it gets into the wrong hands, what would someone find? A list of login passwords nestled in a page on your notepad? An app for your bank with your username and password automatically saved? Or maybe you have an attached email account with copies of pay stubs, financial statements, court documents, and …
Unbreakable Data Encryption Methods Create Buzz
The ever-famous Titanic sinking attached leeriness to the term “unsinkable.” If a ship claimed as unsinkable could actually sink, what other claims also prove impossible? When a recent “unbreakable” data encryption method was released by Battelle Memorial Institute, a Ohio-based nonprofit research and development contractor, skepticism closely followed. Data encryption is a security method used to encode information to allow only …
Famous Data Security Breaches in the US
Most of us put our trust in the companies, both online and in person, that hold on to our secure information. Unfortunately computer hackers outmaneuver the security processes required by state and national laws and end up costing companies millions of dollars, but most importantly, confidential consumer information. The following famous data security breaches show vulnerabilities companies possess that allow …
The 7 Top Data Security Mistakes Most Companies Make
With most of a company’s information stored and used through technology, overexposure of private documents is becoming more common. State laws require businesses to secure their disposal of paper documents, digital files, and inactive electronics. The following is a list of data security mistakes that can easily be avoided to better secure the confidentiality of a company. Data Security Mistakes …
Data Breach Notification Laws: What does it all mean?
Data breaches occur; it is a fact of life that we must live with. We can however prepare and minimize damage by following state laws that require data breach notifications. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands require an organization to notify others when a breach has occurred. These state laws require …
The Threat is Real: 5 Recent Cases of Identity Theft
Any discussion of data and document security and paper shredding naturally involves talking about the dangers of identity theft. Unfortunately, it’s very common to think that “it will never happen to me,” but as we’ve shown in the past, identity theft is a real threat. 5 stories from this month involving identity theft: In the interest of keeping up with …
7 Simple Steps to Boost Security on Social Media
If you are like the majority of people today, you have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, or a LinkedIn profile. Social media is a booming industry and a place for people to be open, transparent, and truly connected to the world. But, how safe is it? Can social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn continue to request access various …
The Hidden Security Dangers of Your Office Copier Part II
In a previous blog entitled, “The Hidden Security Dangers of Your Office Copier” we discussed the dangers of information stored on office copiers. Since 2002, digital copy machines have been equipped with hard drives that save and store all scanned, faxed, and copied documents. One organization discovered this the hard way. Affinity Health Plan, Inc., of New York was hit …