The Data Security Breaches - WRTG 393
Added on - 01 Mar 2020
WRTG 393 - The following paper is based on Data Breach. Data breach is computer security breach. The paper discusses one incident that took place in June 2017 - Deep Root Analytics. The data security breaches have advanced at such a arte that it seems to be almost impossible for the data to be kept unprotected for a single moment also as the hackers are always on the look about for such a situation where in they can enter the system of companies and steal crucial information which would hamper them.
Trusted by 2+ million users,
1000+ happy students everyday
1000+ happy students everyday
Showing pages 1 to 3 of 8 pages
PART ACOMPUTER SECURITY BREACH TOOK PLACE IN JUNE 2017- DEEP ROOTANALYTICSINTRODUCTIONThe data security breaches have advanced at such a arte that it seems to be almostimpossible for the data to be kept unprotected for a single moment also as the hackers arealways on the look about for such a situation wherein they can enter the system of companiesand steal crucial information which would hamper them. In the year 2016, the RepublicanNational Committee hired Deep Root Analytics , a data analytics company to collect crucialpolitical data with regards the voters in the USA (Daitch, 2017). Chris Vickery who wasworking as a cyber risk analyst found out that the crucial and critical data that was gatheredby Deep Root Analytics i.e. basically comprised of private information for nothing less than200 million citizens of America was stored on an Amazon Cloud server and that too withoutany protection such as passwords or any such authentication for over a fortnight in the monthof June 2017.The examination of the situation has confirmed that the data that has been leakedcomprises of names, addresses, phone numbers, date of birth and Voter registration numbersthat were mentioned in the Voter Ids of the voters(Newman,2017).ASSESSMENT OF THE ISSUEOn doing a complete examination of the said case, it is understood that the mainreason behind the attack was Deep Root Analytics themselves and he negligence actconducted by them of storing data on the cloud without protecting the same. The researcher,Chris Vickery had found out that there was a flawed database which comprised data of
almost all the voters who were registered and which was gathered by the said analyst. Themain issue here was absence of any password which would help protect it from access fromunwanted people. However since the same was missing thereby anyone with an internetconnection could gain access of the information and thereby tamper it. Around a terabyte ofdata was breached due to negligence (Bertrand, 2017). The issue here was also that variousfiles that were exposed had not originated from Deep Root. They are the total of outside dataentities and organizations and Republican super PACs , which basically puts the attentiononto the ever increasing data network and that had supposedly lent a helping hand to thecurrent president of US, slender limits in key swing rates. Even though the data possessed byDeep Root contained facts and figures typical of any political campaign, yet the fact that it iscrucial for immoral and malicious individuals and groups cannot be ignored (Cameron &Conger, 2017). The said issue propelled when the firm had updated their security settingsearly in the month of June 2017.Thus the main issue that can be understood from this kind of a data breach is that theanalyst firm had obtained data from various other companies which contained data such asthe type of campaigning that would help the President win the elections, the cost attachedwith the same, the kind of voters available etc. the files exposed were critical as they weredata on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Planned Parenthood and theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (Walsh, 2017). The data breached also comprised of thepreferences of the voters such as stem cell research and gun control. Thereby it can be rightlysaid that the carelessness on the part of the company made many people pay a price for it andthat too the information was sensitive enough from the political perspective as well(Matthews, 2017).
SOLUTIONS TO PREVENT SUCH HACKSSolutions are many which would help protection of such carelessness again in future.One of the most important was to ensure that if any updates have to be run on any previousdata stored, then it is a necessity to ensure that adequate safeguards are installed. Even thoughDeep Root Analytics have assumed full responsibility for the occurrence of the breach, theyhave immediately on being aware of the same, have updated their security settings so that nofurther loss occurs. However, there should also be a system wherein after any updates beingdone, the system should by itself prompt about the lack of passwords or weak passcode. Thiswould help protection as well as dealing with such a negligence in future as well (Lapdwsky,I2017). This is basically human error which can occur anytime, but such an error can be verydisastrous for the whole country as it may lead to development of terrorism to a greater scale,hence these data analytics companies should either destroy off the data after the work is overor ensure security is not lacked at any moment whatsoever.CONCLUSIONThere on a concluding note, it is understood that the staff of Deep Root Analyticswere very careless and had a negligent attitude which led them to forgetting of checking thesecurity settings once the system was duly updated. Storing any data in cloud definitelyprovides more space to the organizations, but at the same time they end up exposing the sameto a huge arena of hackers who are always on the verge of stealing data and tampering themor playing unwanted games with the information. Deep Root Analytics although haspresently taken care of the same and also confirmed that as per them not much of tamperinghave been done, yet they should ensure that the person behind the same should be thoroughlytrained again.
You’re reading a preview
To View Complete Document
Click the button to download
Subscribe to our plans
In conclusion, it is understood that the staff of Deep Root Analytics were very careless and had a negligent attitude which led them to forgetting of checking the security settings once the system was duly updated. Storing any data in cloud definitely provides more space to the organizations, but at the same time they end up exposing the same to a huge arena of hackers.