Data breaches have become an alarming reality nowadays and will pop up into sensitively exposed information along with financial or reputational damage. Major breach analyses are valuable lessons to improve cybersecurity practices. Let’s see what happened and how we can learn from it to protect our devices from this kind of attack in this blog through cybersecurity.
Equifax (2017): The Importance of Patch Management
What happened:
- Almost 147 million people had their data exposed following a flaw in the Apache Struts web application framework.
Lesson learned:
- Although regular patching is essential to mitigate known vulnerabilities, the Public Federal Defence ACT charity recommends that users enable the hidden protection system as soon as possible.
- Running vulnerability assessments provides you with a clear list of security updates to prioritise.
Target (2013): Third-Party Risks
What happened:
- Target said attackers gained access to 40 million payment card details and 70 million customer records through a third-party vendor’s breach of its systems.
Lesson learned:
Vendor Risk Management: Insist on some firebulls in a third party.
Network segmentation: Sensitive data has been restricted to access such that it has reduced its harmful effect.
Yahoo (2013-2016): Encryption and Incident Response
What happened:
- The two attacks involved compromised emails, passwords and security questions and affected all three billion Yahoo accounts.
Lesson learned:
Strong Encryption: Encrypt all sensitive data of reasonable strength.
Timely Response: Exploit any breach to minimise the damage and restore the confidence of our users.
Marriott (2018): Monitoring Mergers and Acquisitions
What happened:
- Meanwhile, a breach of Starwood’s entire reservation system also leaked data for some 500 million customers, including passport numbers and credit card information.
Lesson learned:
- Thorough cybersecurity due diligence be done over mergers and acquisitions.
- Such unusual activity is monitored using the implementation of intrusion detection systems (IDS).
Colonial Pipeline (2021): Ransomware Readiness
What happened:
The bulk of the ransomware attack manipulated oil supplies in the United States by exploiting illegally compromised passwords.
Lesson learned:
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Access controls should be strengthened, and unauthorised access should be prevented.
Incident Response Plan: Have a full response plan and develop a practice of having minimum downtime.
Facebook (2019): Secure Public Data
What happened:
In two unsecured databases, more than 540 million Facebook users’ personal details were exposed.
Lesson learned:
Data Minimisation: Maintain and prosper because of a loss of any data!
Cloud Security: Secupy and monitor operations on cloud storage.
Uber (2016): Ethical Concerns in Breach Handling
What happened:
- Uber paid hackers $100,000 to delete the records they stole, 57 million of them, rather than report the breach.
Lesson learned:
Transparency: Go public on disclosures as soon as the breach occurs.
Ethical Incident Handling: Strictly refrained from doing things that can lead to regulatory damage or damage to reputation.
Capital One (2019): Misconfigured Cloud Servers
What occurred:
- The 106 million customer records, loaded with Social Security and bank account numbers, were left exposed after a misconfigured firewall.
Lesson learned:
Secure Cloud Configurations: Implement and review some cloud security best practices in your organisation.
Access Control Policies: Only allow access to authorised server personnel.
Sony Pictures (2014): Nation-State Threats
What happened:
- The cyber attack by North Korea is said to be behind leaked emails, financial data and upcoming films.
Lesson learned:
Advanced Threat Monitoring: There should be systems set up to identify and respond to nation-state-type attacks.
Employee Awareness: Teach employees about spear phishing and other types of targeted attacks.
Best Practices for Organisations and Individuals
Organisations:
- It’s best to perform regular security audits.
- Implement Zero Trust architecture, which blocks entry of every request without authentication.
- Teaching your employees the best defensive practices against phishing and social engineering can go a long way.
Individuals:
- Never use the same password for all accounts
- Wherever possible, enable multi-factor authentication
- Check their credit reports regularly to make sure no transaction has been made that they have not.
Conclusion
What we learn from these breaches is that organisations should position themselves to bolster their cybersecurity efforts through proactive measures and workforce education. Therefore, they must as well watch out and protect themselves. A Cybersecurity Course at the London School of Emerging Technology (LSET) will prepare you to build a career in cybersecurity. The course is well structured and has projects around those that teach you the much-needed skills to fight modern cyber threats.