Yesterday The Washington Post reported that sensitive, personally identifiable information of more than 1.4 million students and more than 200,000 teachers was improperly stored by the Maryland State Department of Education, leaving them at risk of identity theft:
Jonathan Deveaux, Head of Enterprise Data Protection at comforte AG:
“Typically, security audits remain private within organizations, so this report offers a rare glimpse into how challenging it is to keep up to date against potential cybersecurity gaps. The audit revealed a problem that most organizations face – reducing (or eliminating) legacy operating systems which often contain exploitable vulnerabilities. From a logistics point of view, there are tools to help remotely upgrade operating systems. However, other factors need to be considered, such as availability of services, applications which may also need to be updated, and other resource availability.
From a cost perspective, ROI against updating operating systems was difficult to calculate in the past. The main factors organizations used to determine ROI were operational efficiency and staff performance. Today, there is enough post-cyber event data to help IT and Security leaders explain the risk of a cyber incident due to outdated operating system vulnerabilities. By example, the hack that occurred on June 2019 where up to 78,000 names and SSNs were accessed, is estimated to cost an organization over $11.5 million (Google average cost per record of a data breach).
With the high costs associated with cyber incidents, the fact remains that it is not easy for IT departments to keep all systems and computers up to date. Cybersecurity providers can help organizations get to a secured-state faster by ‘operationalizing’ their solutions. Easier deployment, like integrations that are transparent to existing systems, will help reduce the need for service outages, minimize change requirements, and reduce resource impacts.”
Laurence Pitt, Global Security Strategy Director at Juniper Networks:
“Every day there is a new data breach reported in the news, or a new vulnerability exposed against outdated or legacy operating systems. There is no excuse for not having encryption for data-at-rest on devices to ensure that if it is accessed externally, then it’s of no use. Also, there is no excuse for not having legacy operating systems solutions, such as system-hardening (Deep Freeze, for example), which would prevent a hacker from being able to make unauthorized changes. It is shocking to see that a public entity would allow themselves to be so exposed, when they are protecting sensitive data for so many people.”
ISBuzz Team embodies the collaborative efforts of the dedicated staff at Information Security Buzz, converging a wide range of skills and viewpoints to present a unified, engaging voice in the information security realm. This entity isn't tied to a single individual; instead, it's a dynamic embodiment of a team diligently working behind the scenes to keep you updated and secure. When you read a post from ISBuzz Team, you're receiving the most relevant and actionable insights, curated and crafted by professionals tuned in to the pulse of the cybersecurity world. ISBuzz Team - your reliable compass in the fast-evolving landscape of information security
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.