Security breaches are on the rise and affect the lives of many CEO, CIO, or CTO on a daily basis. Not every IT executive is directly responsible for IT security. Few have a deep understanding of it.
But in our networked world, IT security is the foundation of a successful business, and blame is shared when the floor collapses.
Organizational leaders want to focus on the big picture, but not paying attention to security has proven to be a poor career move. Lately there have been numerous CIO, and CTO being fired for the lack of an IT security policy and breaches on the network.
Katherine Archuleta, the director of the US Office of Personnel Management, is the latest casualty of a data breach. She resigned last week based upon hackers making off with the data of 21.5 million people who applied for government background checks. Her agency previously disclosed that the personal information of more than 4.2 million federal workers had been compromised.
In a May 2015 study, based on information from 350 companies, IBM and the Ponemon Institute found that the average total cost of a data breach increased to $3.79 million from $3.52 million last year. The average cost paid for each lost or stolen record with sensitive data rose as well, to $154, from $145 last year. That’s a global average. In the US, the cost per capita reached $217.
By that measure, the theft of 25.7 million OPM records could cost almost $5.6 billion. If only those funds could be added to the $14 billion proposed for cyber security in FY2016.
The OPM breach will have sever consequences to national security. Monetary costs tell us nothing about the angst and inconvenience visited upon the victims of a breach, or the personal and professional toll paid by whoever accepts responsibility. When you look at the list of companies that have been hacked in some way, it becomes apparent that even the most technically sophisticated organizations can be breached given a sufficiently well funded, determined attacker. Carvechi Technology has been work with IBM and Cisco on proper security practices and for a free vulnerability assessment contact us today.