6-1 Discussion: Data Breach Previous Next  In this blog post, The Capital One Data Breach: Time to Check Your Credit Report, the author discloses that 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians were affected by this most recent, highly publicized data breach. With reports of such malicious breaches in security becoming more and more prevalent, the susceptibility for threat has become a high priority among organizations and security experts in assessing risks and vulnerabilities. For your initial post, consider the growing number of highly sophisticated and targeted attacks of late. For this post, consider what causes a data breach, what methods are used to breach, and the ways in which a breach could be prevented. Are there any measures that are too extreme? Do we halt all bring your own device (BYOD) programs in the workplace—even cell phone usage? To what lengths should an employer go to protect their customers? How can you justify this decision? In your response to your peers, provide thoughtful feedback to their posts. Explain why you agree or disagree with their positions and provide an additional justification that supports your reasoning. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2019/07/capital-... POST 1 Data breaches can occur for a number of reasons. They can be caused by peoples' habits to flaws and misconfigurations in computer systems. They can be carried using a number of different methods such as malware or phishing scams. There are many ways that a data breach can be prevented. The first thing to do is to ensure that all employees are trained in security best practicies. This should help eliminate issues that could arise from human habits. It is also importatn to make sure that all systems are configured correctly and that they are patched with latest updates regularly. It is also important to design and develop security policies that can be implemented. It is important to know that any security measure introduced should not make the system unusable. The goal is to strike a balance between security and usability. BYOD programs can make productivity better, but it comes with security issues. Despite the security concerns, there is no reason to halt any BYOD program. It is important to develop a BYOD policy that protects the security of the systems it is accessing and the data it is trying to access. It is important that an employer does everything to protect their customers' data. They should be willing to spend money to ensure their systems are secure and that their employees are following the best practicies. Those who do not follow the policies in place should be held accountable. It is important to maintain the security of the customers' data because if a data breach occurs it could hurt the company's reputation. This could lead to customers not wanting to trust the company any more. It could also affect the financial bottom line of the company. POST 2 When it comes to data breaches it really isn’t a matter if they are going to happen. Its more a matter of when and how. Unfortunately, this is the reality we live in today. But even with the best cyber security solutions put in place there will always be a way for someone to get in. This is due to humans without properly trained employees a company will always be at risk. Humans have always been the weakest point in any cyber security solutions. This is why companies spend millions of dollars every year to train their employees on what to look out for and best practices while using a computer. On this note I don’t really think there any measures cyber security that are too extreme. To clarify this statement, I think there is definitely some companies that require more security than others. For example, the department of defense will have way more extreme solutions in place then say your local coffee shop. Cyber security measures are not cheap to implement and having “extreme” measures in place would have to look at on a per company basis. In terms of not allowing employees to bring their own devices into work I think this can go either way. Like stated above if an employee’s place of work if your local coffee shop then I would say no they should be allowed to bring their cell phone to work. However, if you work in pentagon or in a datacenter for a major IT company, I will say that employees should have to leave their personal belongings at the door. This is murky waters though because some people will argue that this a breach in their rights and that they should be allowed to carry their cellphones around use then if they like. However, if a company like capital one has a breach again like they had that could put them out of business. So once again I would have to say putting a halt on BYOD would have to be once again would have to looked at on a per company basis. I am a firm believer that if a company should protect their customers data with everything they have. We as consumers make purchase based off of the merit a company holds in society. I am the type of consumer who will pay extra money to shop from a company who I know has great customer service and good track record when it comes to keeping their customers information safe. Hence why I do not think there is any real extreme in this situation either. The justification here customers trust and pay for a company’s service and if that service involves them housing a customer’s personal information. It is that company’s job to keep that data out of the hands of people it does not belong too.