2019’s Biggest Security Breaches (and how not to find yourself fined)

Hackers and holes in your system may leave you vulnerable to the next news cycle

The chances your personal data hasn’t already been leaked by your bank, uni, social media outlet or favourite small business are as slim as winning the lotto – but if your business is breached the result is a lotto-sized fine. Is that really how you want to start the New Year? We didn’t think so. Learn from past mistakes and you may just consider scheduling a free IT Health Check with Centrix after the break, whether you’ve got a robust IT team (Mark Zuckerberg’s apology tour is in it’s 15th year) or not.

• Software
  Most of us use Adobe products at work (or have employees who need Illustrator, InDesign, etc.), but did you know that just last month 7.5m Adobe accounts were exposed? That’s going to be a stain that the company won’t be able to PhotoShop away. The only good news? Creative Cloud users only had their email addresses exposed. 
• Mobiles
  Have you noticed a recent uptake in robocalls to your mobile phone? Perhaps you should thank Optus for that. The company has been in the news multiple times over the past few years for accidentally sharing emails, names and more with nefarious third parties; their most recent snafu saw ~50k mobile numbers being printed in the White Pages. Although a fine has not yet been announced you can bet your bottom dollar this didn’t set well with customers. 
• Uni
  In the last few months of 2019, both TAFE NSW and ANU have been tapped by bad guys. Not only did those hacks result in personal details leaving campus accounts, but several students had to re-sit exams as test scores and transcripts are now as digitised (and susceptible to hacks) as everything else. 
• Money
  If your bank hasn’t yet sent you an email apologising for a breach, consider yourself on Santa’s “good list” this year. For those of us who trusted NAB, Equifax and Commonwealth Bank, we’re expecting coal. Even these trusted institutions are open to breaches when they don’t allow independent third parties to have a look under the hood and investigate for security failures (that can result in closed branches, your most valuable data being exposed, and the need for extra time spent reviewing each and every “purchase” made on your card).

The government increased the maximum penalty to Aussie businesses who find themselves with their internal trousers down to $10m as a way of having us all pay better mind to our internal systems. So how good our yours? Schedule a free IT and Security Health Check today with Centrix so as to start 2020 buttoned up.