Free Essay

It Failure

In: Computers and Technology

Submitted By jventura226
Words 827
Pages 4
Jennifer Ventura
ACCT. 4100.001
February 26, 2015
IT Failure- Target Breach

IT failures have become more and more prevalent these past few years, or at least now that they’re publicized more often since they are now associated with our personal information. Before we heard about breaches and hacking, we would think of IT failures in a different sense such as a stores system not working properly or even their website not responding. We are often reminded that we are lazy creatures and with that we tend to think about how to make are lives simpler not safer. When we stand in line at the store we never stop to think about how secure our purchases are while using our debit/credit cards. Well that’s not the case now, in late November of 2013 that all changed for us.
Target experienced one of the largest retail breach back in 2013 when it was discovered that there was malware found in their systems from a third party affiliate (Riley, Elgin, Lawrence, and Matlack, 2014). The breach occurred between the days of November 27th and December 15th (“Data Breach FAQ,” 2015). Meaning this massive breach went on for a total of 19 days, which leads to the question: How could Target allow this to go on for over two weeks without noticing? This was a very well thought out attack because it was one of the busiest seasons of the year, catching Target off-guard. Despite the fact that, it was such a busy time, it does not excuse the fact that Target made a tremendous error.
Prior to this nightmare, Target had invested $1.6 million on malware security software from FireEye and if that wasn’t enough, they also had a team in Bangalore who monitored their computers day and night (Riley et al., 2014). When the hackers made a mistake in their escape plan on November 30th, FireEye caught them and alerted Bangalore. The team in Bangalore notified the security team in the US, but Target chose to do nothing at all (Riley et al., 2014). Target got another opportunity to react to the breach on December 2nd, but still they ignored it and allowed the hackers to steal sensitive customer information for another 13 days (Riley et al., 2014). Even after spending so much money to prevent something like this, Target made two enormous mistakes that ultimately led to losing their customers’ trust and business.
During the time of the breach hackers were able to retrieve 70 million shoppers information including name, address, email address and phone number along with 40 million credit and debit card numbers, including their account numbers and expiration dates (Krebs, 2014). According to Krebs (2014) these hackers produced $53.7 million from selling Target’s stolen shoppers information for about $18-$36 per card. In other words at least 1.4 million people across the world paid hackers for this information. To make things worse banks and credit unions spent about $200 million to reissue cards (Krebs, 2014). Both led to at least 90 lawsuits filed by both customers and banks against Target for “negligence and compensatory damages” (Riley et a., 2014). Target not only lost profit, but it also allowed these hackers to make a living off of their customer’s stolen information, and caused banks to go down with them because of their ignorance.
With so many advances in technology nowadays I think it is difficult to ensure that there is no possible way to be hacked, because of the constant need for updates and compatibility between different systems. Some companies do not perform these updates as needed, clearly inviting hackers to steal their intellectual property. Target made an enormous error by neglecting the two alarms that could have saved them so much money and distress. Target has to implement new training or software to prevent this or at least have a plan if there is ever another breach anywhere near this size. If you look back at how much time has passed and we still continue to see security breaches from big retailers like Home Depot, Albertsons, and Neiman Marcus there should be some very serious concerns as to why they haven’t made changes. So much more should be done to prevent these types of securities breaches. Training and preventative controls could go a long way for these big businesses.

References:
1. Data breach FAQ. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2015, from https://corporate.target.com/about/shopping-experience/payment-card-issue-FAQ#q5888
2. Krebs, B. (2014, May 6). Krebs on Security. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/05/the-target-breach-by-the-numbers/
3. Riley, M., Elgin, B., Lawrence, D., & Matlack, C. (2014, March 13). Missed Alarms and 40 Million Stolen Credit Card Numbers: How Target Blew It. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-03-13/target-missed-alarms-in-epic-hack-of-credit-card-data#p1

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