CTO Insights: Data Breaches – Almost Like Clockwork

When you hear the phrase “data breach”, things like insider hacks, financial heists, stolen data, broken privacy, or cyber espionage immediately spring to mind. While a data breach is certainly complex, they're not limited to insider jobs or hacked data and could extend to other cybercriminal campaigns. Consequently, the impact of a data breach’s aftermath does not easily recede as possible remnants of malware could have slipped under the radar of the company’s network for causing further damage. But why are data breaches becoming more rampant today?

Last year, we predicted a pattern for 2014 that there will be at least one data breach per month in the wake of year 2013’s count of high profile data breach incidents highlighted by Target’s nightmarish breach. In January, more data breaches on establishments such as eBay, Spec’s, Michael’s Store among others were revealed. Point-of-sale (POS) systems were also targeted by attackers who used malware to scrape credit card information. Recently, JP Morgan, Home Depot, and other brick-and-mortar merchants like Kmart and Dairy Queen were hit by POS data breaches that resulted in stolen customer data and records.

[Read more: 2014 – An Explosion of Data Breaches and PoS RAM Scrapers]

Sadly, despite the steady increase in data breach incidents and warnings from security experts, many companies did not respond with urgency, hence, attacks have become more frequent. But what can we do about it? In the embedded video “Data Breaches: Almost Like Clockwork”, Trend Micro CTO Raimund Genes provides his insight on data breaches and the steps that can be taken to prevent future data breach incidents.