We Need to be Trained Better

If you ask any IT professional about the onslaught of recent cyber attacks and hacks, you will eventually get to the part where you learn what's causing it all.  While Russian hackers and overweight basement dwellers will be probably be brought up, what you might not hear is that these attacks succeed due to poor computer security practices by people like you and me.  Both the Target data breach and the 2016 DNC Email hack happened because somebody simply clicked on an email link without thinking - scary stuff!

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INTRODUCTION:

Data breaches are an unauthorized access to personally identifiable information that is held or transmitted by companies. These unauthorized “attacks” can negatively impact companies in three ways.  Reputation damage, regulatory fines, and ultimately released workers.  To avoid the three R’s of a data breach, the organization must focus resources on a security strategy to protect their customer’s information.  This is a very tricky situation when there is also an inbound marketing strategy that involves search engine optimization and attracting potential customers.  

An inbound marketing strategy is a customer centric methodology that begins with attracting strangers and converting them to delighted customers that will promote the organization.  The buyer’s journey involves using stage-driven content to attract and convert visitors into customers.  Part of the conversion process involves the use of forms that collect data.  With the heightened awareness about sharing information online, this could present a challenge when trying to obtain lead information.

Brian McVicar reported that the cost for investigating and providing services to the individuals affected by the data security breach at Ferris State University (http://www.ferris.edu/) was approximately $380,000. It is believed that the personal information of 62,000 current, former, and prospective students as well as current and former employees was put at risk by this data security breach (http://hacksurfer.com/surfboard/ferris-universitys-costly-data-breach - October 22, 2013).