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Written by: 12/27/2011 8:05 AM
As we ring in the New Year and plan to start 2012 with a renewed commitment to network security, let’s review the list of the five biggest database breaches of 2011. Not surprisingly, three of the five were not managed by hackers with complex plots to steal and overthrow. No, it was just simple human error.
1) Big oops #1: At Nemours, a pediatric healthcare system, unencrypted tapes containing sensitive employee, vendor, and patient information were lost during a facility remodeling project. SSNs, insurance data, private medical information and bank account number….just lost.
2) Big oops #2: Nearly 20 years worth of private medical information was stolen from Tricare because an employee working for one of their contractors left a backup tape in the back of his car. That petty thief got a bit more than an iPod and a few CDs.
3) Big oops #3: One bold cat burglar got away with PII for more than 3 million patients when he made off with an unencrypted laptop from Sutter Physicians services.
Breaches #4 and #5 did involve hackers and social engineers who infiltrated systems in order to steal private or personally identifiable information. But the point is this: in 2012, hackers will still be out there. But are they the biggest threat to security? This list says maybe not, and that our biggest concern should be ourselves.
Read more here: http://www.darkreading.com/database-security/167901020/security/news/232300536/five-big-database-breaches-of-2011-s-second-half.html?pgno=2#articleArea