Guest Blogger: Violetta Abinaked, Summer Associate (originally posted by Mark McCreary’s on Privacy Compliance & Data Security)
With data breaches being the quickly trending “flavor of the month” criminal activity, it’s no shock that on June 4, 2015 yet another system was hit. This time though, it may be one of the largest cyberattacks in U.S. history—compromising as many as 4 million current and former federal employees’ information. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) handles security clearances and background checks and although many would assume that its security is top-notch, the facts on the ground reveal that every place taking in sensitive information—including the government—must update its privacy infrastructure.
In his press statement on Thursday, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence echoed that sentiment and stated that “Americans may expect that federal computer networks are maintained with state of the art defenses [but] it’s clear a substantial improvement in our cyber-databases defenses is perilously overdue. This does not only apply to systems of this magnitude.
Any business that maintains data bases with private information must invest in the proper privacy infrastructure necessary to protect that information. Cyberattacks do not discriminate. From major retailers to well-respected state universities, data breaches run the gamut and from the looks of Thursday’s attack, they are getting more sophisticated. OPM is now working closely with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team to attempt to identify the extent of the harm on federal personnel. But not everyone has the luxury of the entire U.S. government as a “crisis manager” so preventive measures for businesses will make a difference.
At this time, one of the most troubling facts of cyberattacks is that the source is difficult to locate. Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the hack was “extremely sophisticated,” and “that points to a nation state” as the responsible party, likely China. No conclusive source has been discovered yet but the lesson here is clear—with private information being involved in almost every aspect of business, measures must be taken to protect it.