The Menace of Hacking and Data Breaches for Organizations

The big shift to computing in the business world occurred around the end of the 1980s; with IBM leading the pack in providing computing solutions for businesses that at the time promised to give your business the edge above other establishments. The biggest selling point of the new technology was the promise that it would revolutionize the way companies stored and managed data. I was a compelling offer, given the hassles of storing and maintaining files, folders and a sea of documents.

Computers changed that scenario altogether, potentially leading to increased levels of productivity and lower data handling costs. The acceptance of computing technology in the 20^th century restructured businesses all over the world. However, this isn’t the 20^th century anymore. Networking and the internet have further streamlined data flow and by extension businesses, yet, a new menace is at large.

Hacking is commonly defined as the art of gaining unauthorized access to a computer or its data. Worldwide networking and open source software on modern day computer machines translates that anyone skilled in computer programming can manipulate the weaknesses in a machine’s software and gain access to sensitive information that might be stored on your device. While hacking can affect each and every individual with a computing device, however, its sting is felt the most in case of organizations.

Data is the heart and soul of any organization. It helps it to react to rapid changes that might occur due to some environmental changes, gauge market demand or to simply store the contact details of its customers. Data breaches are not new to organizations. Even before the advent of computers, data breaches were reported from high value public companies, but, that amounted to physical theft of data, which could be controlled by simply increasing the security.

However, controlling hacks is not that simple. Earlier, the entire data of a company was stored locally on hard drives that could be accessed only physically. However, ever since networking became more and more prevalent, the data is no longer on physical drives, but is being continuously streamed.  This makes it easier for hackers to potentially gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.

As more and more companies go online, there are reports of frequent attacks and data breaches. The most gruesome one yet occurred in 2013 when Target, the American retail chain was hacked in 2014. Around 40 million debit and credit card numbers were stolen from company databases. Since then, reports of hacks have been regular features in the news.

An even bigger controversy erupted when Sony pictures was hacked, allegedly by North Korea. The hackers eventually posted private emails of company bosses, copies of unreleased movies, causing huge losses and embarrassment to the company. Several other companies also reported similar hacks in the past year, adding fuel to the urgent need for measures to safeguard businesses and also all computing devices from potential hacking attempts.

The situation has gotten out of hand. The laws to prevent hacking and unlawful access of private information; however, they lack enforcement. Companies rely mostly on private contracts with IT companies to manage their data and ensure its security. But, IT companies can only amp up the defense of the system. They cannot go after the hackers.

One of the other problems with data breaches is that investigators do not have much to go on with, because they have very little cases with which they can correlate similarity patterns and strategize accordingly. It is not necessary that hacking attempts have increased exponentially in these past two years. In reality, less than 50% of all hacking attempts are ever reported. Sometimes, due to lack of disclosure on part of companies and other times because most hacks go unnoticed.

The cyber crime divisions of the police are just empty monikers. After all these high profile hacks involving huge multinationals which have the ability to exercise political pressure, the perpetrators have not been identified. To everyone’s disbelief, the US President Barack Obama made and outright accusation on North Korea for being responsible for the hacking attacks on Sony. What followed this event was even more juvenile. A few days later it was reported that the entire internet infrastructure of North Korea had been compromised, allegedly by the United States.

Setting aside all these conspiracy theories, the pressing need is to safeguard businesses and ensure that the next hack does not crumple a bank or a stock exchange, threatening the entire economic structure of a country. The age old principle of prevention is better than cure comes into play here as well.  Using secure networks, screening and training employees, regularly updating the software are all safeguards which will make it harder for hackers to penetrate the system firewalls.

But there is only so much that a company can do while just increasing the home base security. The companies that own devices and even computer security companies have not been able to keep a check on hacking activities. The only effort that can now seem to put a dent in hackers’ ambitions is the setting up of cyber security cells which are dedicated towards safeguarding the interests of business owners, before this becomes a full blown catastrophe.