Whilst there are many big named companies that have been hacked there are not enough taking the threat seriously. October 2015 saw TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc (LON:TALK) become victim of a website breach that allowed hackers to steal the personal details of 157,000 customers personal details including 15,000 people had their bank account information taken. The company later revealed in its annual report that it had lost 95,000 subscribers resulting in over £55m in losses. Talktalk are not the first nor will they be the last company to fall victim, hundreds of millions of hacked account details from social networks MySpace LLC and Tumblr Inc have now been advertised for sale online. LinkedIn ID’s of over 167 million accounts have also been traded online.
DirectorsTalk caught up with John Blamire CEO of Falanx Group Ltd (LON:FLX) for his thoughts on the latest breaches.
“MySpace and Tumblr are not alone in their vulnerability to client data theft, all corporates and organisations are. Unfortunately for the consumer, most large organisations are not taking the issue as seriously as they should as they do not believe the cost outweighs the consequence due to consumer apathy, as explained by Robert Lemos, a veteran technology journalist who writes for PCWorld, in his latest article.
As Rob mentions, scrutiny will intensify when these mega breaches become more personal in nature and data of a person’s health, financial and legal situation are released. Or as in the case of MySpace, where confidential, social and family information is sold to the highest bidder, the likelihood of a public backlash significantly increases and corporates are forced to take seriously the risk of losing client data and improve security to combat this. In addition, the legislature and criminal courts of democracies will not be far behind in holding organisations to account for breaching the trust of the public.” – John Blamire CEO of Falanx Group Ltd.
