EDPR and customers data protection

We follow on from our Cyber Security Force’s post yesterday about 96% of firms being unprepared for tougher data protection laws.

We follow on from our Cyber Security Force's post yesterday about 96% of firms being unprepared for tougher data protection.While businesses grapple to become compliant, they remain out of touch with consumer expectations when it comes to data privacy and security.

Nearly three quarters of businesses do not think an organisation’s privacy track record is a top three consideration for customers when choosing who to do business with, despite customers asking about data security in more than a third of transactions.

Equally concerning, the report said, is the finding that 35% of respondents do not believe their organisation takes an ethical approach to securing and protecting data.

These results show there is a significant disconnect with consumer priorities, the report said, with 88% of European consumers regarding data security as the most important factor when choosing a company with which to do business. In fact, 86% consider it more important than product quality.

Unsurprisingly, the study found that 55% of businesses are not confident they completely meet customers’ data security expectations.

The study also found many businesses have not started working out the necessary organisational and cultural changes they need to make ahead of May 2018.

Some 9% of businesses admitted that all employees are able to access customers’ personal information, while 6% admitted that all staff can access customers’ payment details. Only 14% believe everyone in the organisation has a responsibility to ensure data is protected.

With such wide reaching access to people’s personal information, businesses are underestimating the challenges they will face in managing this in line with the GDPR, the report said.

Under half of those surveyed said managing data ethically is a top priority for their organisation, and less than half again said they would be increasing security training. Only 27% of businesses polled said they are planning to overhaul their approach to security in response to the GDPR.
Technical readiness

The majority of respondents (91%) have concerns about the ability of their organisation to comply with the GDPR, due to factors such as the complexity of processing data correctly in time and costs involved.

Only 28% of IT and business decision makers realise the right to be forgotten is part of GDPR, while 90% of businesses say customers requesting their data be deleted will be a challenge for their organisation.

Only 9% of respondents have already received requests to be forgotten, but 81% believe their customers would exercise their right for data to be deleted, and 60% of businesses do not currently have a system in place that enables them to respond to these requests.

With less than two years before the EU data protection rules come into force, there are 10 key areas businesses need to focus on to ensure they will be compliant.

The European Parliament’s official publication of the General Data Protection Regulation means it will become enforceable on 25 May 2018.

Companies that fail to start planning to deal with the EU’s data protection requirements are in for a real shock, warns the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers.
The GDPR is about enabling organisations to realise the benefits of the digital era, but it is serious about enforcement for those that do not play in the rules, says UK information commissioner.

Nearly all European businesses unprepared for new data protection laws

96% of companies still do not fully understand the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a survey has revealed.

96% of companies still do not fully understand the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a survey has revealed.

Lack of consumer and regulatory understanding, combined with low technical and cultural preparedness, represents a major threat to revenue and brand value, according to a Symantec state of privacy report

As a result, 91% of 900 businesses and IT decision makers polled in the UK, France and Germany have concerns about their ability to become compliant by the time the GDPR comes into force on 25 May 2018, according to Symantec’s State of Privacy Report.

The report coincides with a call by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) for firms to act now to avoid exponentially increased penalties under new European Union (EU) data protection regulations.

UK businesses could face up to £122 billion in penalties for data breaches when new EU legislation comes into effect, the PCI SSC has warned.

The Symantec study also revealed only 22% of businesses consider compliance a top priority in the next two years, despite only 26% of respondents believing their organisation is fully prepared for the GDPR.

Nearly a quarter of those polled said their organisation will not be compliant at all, or will be only partly compliant, by 2018.

Of this group, only a fifth believe it is even possible to become fully compliant with the GDPR, with nearly half believing that while some company departments will be able to comply, but others will not.

This stark lack of confidence in meeting the May 2018 deadline leaves businesses at risk of incurring significant fines, the report said.

These findings show businesses are not only underprepared for the GDPR, they are under preparing,” said Kevin Isaac, senior vice-president, Symantec.

“There is a significant disconnect between how important privacy and security is for consumers, and its priority for businesses. The good news is there’s still time to remedy the situation, but only if firms take immediate action,” he said.

Yahoo hack effects Sky and BT emails as well

The world’s largest hacking of Yahoo also effects BT and Sky email users.

The world's largest hacking of Yahoo also effects BT and Sky email users.Yahoo wasn’t the tech giant in Silicon Valley that it used to be, but the news that half a billion user details were stolen from it over two years ago in 2014 should still concern everyone.

It now transpires that both BT and Sky used Yahoo’s email system and labelled it as their own.  Which is particularly ironic given that Sky’s parent company Fox has had to pay out hundreds of millions to people it had itself hacked it’s customers.

What is even more worrying is customer inertia- that’s because stubborn user behavior and the economics of darknet markets mean the chances of a serious breach at another major internet service increase dramatically with each hack.

The user behavior part is that people like to reuse their passwords—a lot.

One estimate, from Cambridge University’s Security Group, puts password reuse as high as 49%.

That is, we use the same password for every two accounts that require a log-in.

When a big cache of hacked passwords ends up traded on darknet markets, it often gets added to password databases. These databases can be used by corporations to ensure their users don’t use previously published, insecure passwords—or more maliciously by hackers, who will try to find passwords reused on other services.

It’s the equivalent of trying millions of different keys on a particular door, except it’s all automated and can be done in days, as the password cracker Jeremi Gosney has detailed for Ars Technica.

Password reuse and marketplaces for stolen data mean that password databases grow larger and more robust with each major breach. For example, LinkedIn was hacked in 2012 for more than 100 million user accounts. Parts of those stolen credentials wound up in darknet data dumps.

One of those log-ins belonged to a Dropbox employee, who apparently reused a password, allowing a hacker to enter the file-sharing platform’s corporate network. This led to the theft of 70 million Dropbox user passwords, which the company confirmed in August. One massive hack leads to another, forming a daisy-chain of insecurity.

The Yahoo breach is five times the size of the LinkedIn theft. That’s a lot more data to add to password-cracking lists.

The only thing we internet users have going for us now is to hope the “state-sponsored actor” that Yahoo says is behind the hack doesn’t dump the data in public, or sell it for profit. When that happens, we’re due for a password reset.

You can check if your email has been hacked and touted online at: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

UK consumers want fines for firms that lose personal data

Most UK consumers want the government to fine companies who don’t protect personal information.

Most UK consumers want the government to fine companies who don't protect personal information.A majority of UK consumers would like to see government fines for companies that fail to provide sufficient safeguards for personal information, a survey has revealed.

Some 86% of more than 1,000 UK consumers polled by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) think the government should review data protection laws, while 77% feel it should do more to protect data from cyber attacks.

The findings of the survey are in line with the recommendations by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee’s inquiry into the October 2015 data breach at TalkTalk, which saw the personal information of 155,000 people compromised.

The committee has published a set of recommendations in its inquiry report for improving data security in the UK, including the introduction of escalating fines for delays in reporting breaches of personal data.

The report also recommends that the government initiates a public awareness-raising campaign about online scams and allocate more resources to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection authority.

Although most UK consumers would like to see more government action on data protection, 62% also believe businesses should do more to safeguard personal information, according to the ICS survey, which was included in a written submission to the DCMS committee’s inquiry.

The ICS survey shows only 13% of respondents are confident that their personal information is protected and only 15% trust organisations do everything possible to prevent security breaches.

“Businesses need to accept responsibility, rather than offer excuses, if customer data is exposed in a cyber security breach” said Jo Causon, chief executive of the ICS.

“Almost one in four consumers say nothing can restore their trust after a data breach, so if cyber security attacks continue at the current pace, business performance will suffer as concerned customers swap loyalty for personal data safety,” she said.

The ICS survey shows that 22% of respondents no longer trust companies that have suffered a breach, while 28% said they avoid organisations that have suffered a breach. In the event of a breach, 41% seek immediate notification, 23% want compensation and 10% look for an apology.

To reassure customers, the ICS outlines a series of actions businesses can take in its response to the DCMS Committee inquiry.

These include ensuring staff have the appropriate skills to communicate how data is protected and what is happening in the event of a cyber-attack; setting out the approach taken to protect customers’ data so consumers are fully informed and able to make a decision about what to share; and following a consistent set of standards across an organisation so that customer data is continuously protected no matter where it is held or analysed.

Gloucestershire Safer Cyber Forum accepts Cyber Security Force

The Gloucestershire Safer Cyber Forum has accepted Cyber Security Force to join it.

The Gloucestershire Safer Cyber Forum has accepted Cyber Security Force to join it.The Gloucestershire Safer Cyber Forum (GCSF)  was set up and run by the Gloucestershire Constabulary to to provide a source of crime prevention, advice and to share cyber threat information.

GSCF also provides a secure environment for Gloucestershire business to engage directly with peers and Gloucestershire Constabulary on incidents or concerns around cybercrime, along with the ability to report it anonymously.

Being part of GSCF means that we can be at the leading edge of information on how to avoid cyber security issues and when they do arise how best to prevent and recover from the bad guys out there.

Few organisations prepared for cyber attacks, says report

Only 23% of organisations are capable of responding effectively to critical security incidents, according to NTT Com Security’s latest threat report.

Only 23% of organisations are capable of responding effectively to critical security incidents, according to NTT Com Security's latest threat report.
Nearly 80% of organisations remain unprepared and without a formal plan to respond to cyber security incidents, a report has revealed.

There has been little improvement in preparedness in the past three years, according to the annual Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) by NTT Com Security in The Global Threat Intelligence Report 2016.

Based on data from 24 security operations centres, seven R&D centres, 3.5 trillion logs and 6.2 billion attacks in 2015, the GTIR shows that on average, only 23% of organisations have the capability to respond effectively to critical security incidents.

The lack of improvement was further underlined by the finding that nearly 21% of vulnerabilities detected in client networks were more than three years old, while more than 12% were over 5 years old, and over 5% were more than 10 years old.

Results included vulnerabilities from as far back as 1999, making them over 16 years old.

“Prevention and planning for cyber security incidents seems to be stagnating,” said Garry Sidaway, vice-president of strategy and alliances at NTT Com Security.

“This is a real concern and could be due to a number of reasons, such as security fatigue caused by too many high profile security breaches, information overload and conflicting advice in combination with the sheer pace of technology change, lack of investment and increased regulation.

“Facing security challenges that didn’t exist last year, let alone a decade ago, and struggling with a shortfall in information security professionals, many organisations no longer have the necessary skills or resources to cope. Our mantra is prevention is better than cure and get the security basics right, including having a clear, well-communicated incident response plan.”

Although financial services was the leading sector for incident response in previous annual GTIR reports, the retail sector now takes the lead, with 22% of all response engagements, up from 12% the previous year. But retail – a popular target due to processing large volumes of personal information such as credit card details – also experienced the highest number of attacks, the report shows.

The report shows an increase in breach investigations to 28% in 2015 compared with 16% the previous year, with most incidents involving theft of data and intellectual property.

Internal threats jumped to 19% of overall investigations – from 2% in 2014 – with many of these the result of employees and contractors abusing information and computing assets.

Spear phishing attacks accounted for approximately 17% of incident response activities in 2015, up from 2% previously. Many of these attacks related to financial fraud targeting executives and finance personnel, with attackers using clever social engineering tactics, such as getting organisations to pay fake invoices.

Despite the rise in distributed denial of service (DDoS) hacking groups like DD4BC, the GTIR noted a drop in DDoS related activity compared with the previous two years. This is likely to be due to an investment in DDoS mitigation tools and services, the report said. However, the report also said extortion, based on payments by victims to avoid or stop DDoS attacks, had become more prevalent.

NTT Com Security made four recommendations for incident responses:

Prepare incident management processes and “run books”.
Many organisations have limited guidelines describing how to declare and classify incidents even though these are critical to ensure a response can be initiated. Depending on the type of attack, potential impact and other factors, response activities will be very different for each. Common practices for incident response also suggest organisations should develop “run books” to address how common incidents should be handled in their environment.

Evaluate your response effectiveness.
When incidents occur the last thing you want is to lack an understanding of standard incident response operating procedures. Evaluation of preparedness should include regular test scenarios. Consider post-mortem reviews to document and build upon response activities that worked well, as well as areas needing improvement.

Update escalation rosters.
As organisations grow and roles change, it is important to update documentation related to who is involved in incident response activities. Time is critical to incident response and not being able to quickly involve the correct people can hamper your effectiveness. Updating contact information for suppliers such as external incident response support and other providers is just as important.

Prepare technical documentation.
To make accurate decisions and identify impacted systems, organisations must have comprehensive and accurate details about their network.