While we’ve looked at the state of cyber security in the healthcare, finance and insurance industries, it doesn’t begin to cover the breadth of threats out there. Industry-agnostic attacks are constantly threatening confidential corporate information and organizations of all sizes are falling victim to hackers. In fact, we’re all beginning to wonder – is data truly safe anymore?

Customer data isn’t the only thing of value residing in corporate networks.  Intellectual property, legal records, emails, marketing plans and other proprietary documents – basically anything that sets your company apart or exposes your internal operations – should be considered vulnerable. In this part of the Data at Risk series, we’ll look at a few examples of corporate confidentiality cyber attacks, their ultimate effects on the organization and what you can do to mitigate your vulnerability.

Corporate Confidentiality is Almost Laughable

These days it almost feels as if hackers are nearly unstoppable.  Whether these attackers believe they have a higher purpose (hacktivists) or they are just looking for a fast payout, once they’ve set their sights on a goal they won’t stop until they’ve accomplished it. These are some of the corporate confidentiality attacks that happened recently:

• Operation Avenge Assange: If companies like PayPal, VISA and MasterCard can fall victim to hacktivists, so can you. In this attack, the hacker group Anonymous set out to make these major payment companies pay for the sanctions on Wikileaks. Because Wikileaks functions solely on donations, the U.S. government attempted to kill the organization by shutting donations through PayPal, VISA and MasterCard down. Anonymous stood up for Wikileaks, employing Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) tools to carry out DDoS attacks that rendered the payment companies incapacitated.
• Sony Pictures Email Scandal: When Sony Pictures was going to release The Interview, a movie that was based on a fictional plan to assassinate Kim Jong Un, the entertainment company had its emails compromised. The emails scandalized the company, releasing valuable information that has haunted Sony for the last year.
• Fake invoice fraud: Hackers contact unknowing victims with account details requesting payment because of some charge. These cyber attacks are on the rise in 2015 as cyber criminals are successfully using social engineering to coerce people into giving their personal account information. In this case, the business/supplier relationship is compromised and corporate confidentiality fails.
• Chaos Computer Club (CCC): This is the biggest hacker group in Europe and they gained fame for their ability to highlight corporate security flaws. CCC once stole 134,000 Deutsch Marks from a bank in Germany just to give it back the next day. The group set out to highlight the bank’s security flaws, but compromised its confidentiality in the process.

If you don’t want to fall victim to a corporate confidentiality cyber attack, you need to be more prepared for the growing cyber threat landscape.

Corporate Confidentiality Can Be a Reality and It Starts with Network Visibility

You can deploy all the security appliances you want, but they are useless if they can’t see 100% of your network traffic. Ensuring total network visibility is the first step toward true corporate confidentiality. Many companies think SPAN ports or built-in NIC cards will suffice for network visibility, but network TAPs are the only real solution. 

The multitude of corporate confidentiality attacks has left the idea of privacy a bit laughable. However, deploying the right security appliances in tandem with network TAPs can make it a reality.

Protect your company’s assets by ensuring you have 100% network visibility. Download Garland Technology’s free whitepaper, Protecting the Data: 5 Tools to Fight Against Today's Threats.