The article that I did my reflection on was from the website http://www.govinfosecurity.com/. The article was about a hospitality company called White Lodging Services looking into a possible data breach. Although this case is still in the investigation process, the data breach potentially can impact thousands of credit and debit cars across the nation. Brian Krebs, a security blogger, states, “… patterns of fraud were seen from cards used at Marriot hotels from March 23,2013 to the end of the year.” I thought this article was an important read because it makes people aware of the fraud that is going on in large companies.
This article was interesting because it is very similar to the Target scandal that happened previously this year. It seems to me that the companies who are getting targeted with these cases of fraud are very similar. The companies dealing with these many crises are all very large, with a massive number of customers. For example, White Lodging Services operates 168 hotels and more than 30 restaurants in 21 states, with almost $1 billion in revenue. With this in mind, I believe that the people who are committing these crimes know exactly who to target. My thought is that these hackers attack large companies because they have an enormous amount of information about all of thousands of customers that these companies have.
What makes this specific case very alarming is how the breach took place. Form what I read; the breach appears to have affected mainly gift shops and restaurants within the hotels, not the property management systems at the front desk that check people in and out of rooms. This means that the only people who were affected by the breach were the customers who visited the restaurants and the gift shops within the hotel. What makes things worse is that this investigation is still underway, and God knows what other breaches these hackers were able to complete.
This article is extremely important for people read because it makes them aware of the multiple hackers that can negatively affect them in the long run. It was eye opening to read that a company that does not deal with retail had a breach because it is mostly companies who sell products that this security breach happens to. Kate Cox, a writer for the Consumerist, said it best “And as we keep seeing again and again, if you’ve used a credit or debit card pretty much anywhere, you should be aware of breaches and take steps to protect yourself. A need for vigilance is the downside of convenience, these days.”
http://consumerist.com/2014/02/03/today-in-major-credit-card-breaches-hotels-hotel-restaurants/
http://www.informationweek.com/security/attacks-and-breaches/hotel-company-investigates-data-breach-card-fraud/d/d-id/1113671
http://www.govinfosecurity.com/hotel-company-investigating-breach-a-6463
I find it extremely frightening that at this time of age of technology data breaches are becoming more frequent. You would think with all of the advancement in technology, we would have great security and security breaches would not occur. Very large companies that many people are connected to are getting their information hacked and private information is getting leaked to the public. Large companies need to take serious measures in making sure that their information is not getting leaked. For this instance, White Lodging Services operates many hotels and restaurants across the country. You would not expect a large hotel company to get hacked because you would expect that a big brand name would have high security within their database. However, like the article states hackers know exactly who to target because they go for the companies that have the most customers. They would then know that they would have a larger database, which would be easier to hack into. It is an uneasy feeling to know that I as a credit card user, needs to be more aware of where I use me credit card because I need to protect my personal information.
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