Rippleshot Blog

Zach Walker

Zach is an alumnus of the University of Missouri-Columbia. After earning his B.A. in International Studies, he moved back home to Chicago before joining Rippleshot. When he's not managing marketing, he enjoys cheering for the Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks and Bears, improving his culinary skills, or discovering a new favorite restaurant in Chicago.
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Recent Posts

Ponemon Institute 2015 Cost Of A Data Breach Study Webinar Recap

Posted by Zach Walker on Jun 11, 2015 8:52:00 AM

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The Ponemon Institute and IBM recently released its annual Cost Of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis, receiving contributions from over 350 organizations in 16 different industries in 11 countries that were involved in an event where an individual’s name plus a medical or financial record is potentially at risk.

Last Thursday, IBM and the Ponemon Institute hosted a webinar covering the findings from the 2015 report led by David Puzas, Director of Portfolio Marketing, Security Services at IBM and Dr. Larry Ponemon, Chairman and President of the Ponemon Institute.

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Topics: Compromises, Industry News

Data Breach Ripples: Week of June 05

Posted by Zach Walker on Jun 5, 2015 1:00:00 PM

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In this week's issue: a data breach exposes nearly $1.4 million worth of Woolworth's gift cards, hackers compromise the personal information of a million Japanese citizens, the biggest MasterCard issuers were behind the scuttled Target data breach lawsuit, a stolen employee laptop leads to a data breach, and in this week's Rippleshot content, we take a look into the Home Depot data breach lawsuits. 

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

Data Breach Ripples: Week of May 29

Posted by Zach Walker on May 29, 2015 1:00:00 PM

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In this week's issue: the IRS data hack appears to be linked back to Russia, North Dakota amends its state data breach law, six deadly data breach prevention sins for financial institutions, the average cost of a data breach rises to $3.8 million and we take a look at how many personal records have been exposed in 2015 due to data breaches.

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

How Many Personal Records Have Been Exposed In 2015?

Posted by Zach Walker on May 28, 2015 10:20:00 AM

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With the halfway mark for 2015 quickly approaching, many consumers have reached a state of data breach fatigue. Nearly every week, a new story comes out where the personal and payment information of U.S. consumers has been compromised due to a data breach.

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Topics: Compromises, Data Breach Statistics

Data Breach Ripples: Week of May 22

Posted by Zach Walker on May 22, 2015 1:30:00 PM

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In this week's Data Breach Ripples, 20 percent of security professionasl have seen their company hide a data breach, a mobile spy software company suffers a data breach, the Chicago Public Schools district exposed the personal information of 4,000 students, the St. Louis Federal Reserve suffers a DNS breach and for this week's Rippleshot content, we recap ISMG's Chicago Fraud Summit and how issuers, merchants and card networks view the upcoming EMV shift. 

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

Data Breach Ripples: Week of May 15

Posted by Zach Walker on May 15, 2015 1:00:00 PM

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In this week's Data Breach Ripples, Chase plans to rollout EMV cards to its debit card users, cybercrime costs are expected to soar to 2 trillion by 2019, the personal data of over 70 million Americans was exposed due to data breaches in 2014, 91 percent of health industry companies surveyed have suffered at least one data breach and in this week's blog post, we take a look at how cybercriminals can steal your paymetn card data in everyday scenarios. 

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

How Cybercriminals Can Steal Your Credit Card Data

Posted by Zach Walker on May 14, 2015 4:09:00 PM

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We live in a day and age where cybercriminals and security professionals are in a constant battle of Cat and Mouse. Cybercriminals are creating and testing new attack methods at this very moment to test and compromise an organization’s systems. As security professionals, only one mistake has to be made for a security incident to occur, while cybercriminals only have to be right one time. And when cybercriminals are successful, we as consumers feel the repercussions as our personal and financial data is stolen and used for illegal activities.

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Topics: Industry News

Data Breach Ripples: Week of May 08

Posted by Zach Walker on May 8, 2015 1:30:00 PM

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In this week's issue: Sally Beauty appears to have suffered a second data breach in nearly a year, there is belief that widespread EMV adoption in the U.S. could be delayed until 2020, UC Berkeley suffered a data breach exposing current and former students, the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas suffered a data breach lasting over 7 months and for this week's Rippleshot blog post, we take a look at the pressure retailers and organizations face as the pressure to adopt new payment technology puts cardholder security at risk.

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

Data Breach Ripples: Week of May 01

Posted by Zach Walker on May 1, 2015 1:00:00 PM

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In this week's issue: SendGrid suffers a data breach, Best Buy will begin accepting Apple Pay starting this year, Adobe Systems plans to settle its class action lawsuit, banks are losing up to $100k/hr due to improved DDoS attacks and for this week, we take a look into the expected increase in fraud once the U.S. makes the shift to EMV payment cards.

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

How Will EMV Adoption Increase Card Fraud in the U.S.?

Posted by Zach Walker on Apr 29, 2015 2:30:00 PM

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As the United States prepares for the migration to chip-embedded cards, known by many as EMV cards, we as consumers will face one last hurdle before card present fraud is reduced. In October of 2015, merchants and their point-of-sale terminals will have to be EMV compliant to process chip & signature transactions, prompting card issuers to begin aggressively issuing EMV cards.

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Topics: Industry News, EMV

Data Breach Ripples: Week of April 24

Posted by Zach Walker on Apr 24, 2015 1:00:00 PM

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In this week's issue: over 1,500 iOS apps are vulnerable to an eavesdropping exploit, data breaches have affected one in every four Americans, the Wall Street Journal takes an indepth look into how to protect one's corporate data, another POS vendor falls victim to a data breach, and in this week's Rippleshot blog post, we take a look at data breach prevention and data breach detection capabilities. 

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

Rippleshot Joins SixThirty FinTech Accelerator

Posted by Zach Walker on Apr 22, 2015 2:04:00 PM

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Rippleshot, a fraud protection company, is excited to announce its partnership with St. Louis-based FinTech accelerator, SixThirty in its Spring 2015 Cohort.

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Topics: Rippleshot News

Data Breach Ripples: Week of April 17

Posted by Zach Walker on Apr 17, 2015 1:00:00 PM

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In this week's issue: Uber hires a new security officer from Facebook, financial institutions and retailers are skirmishing over the upcoming EMV deadline, UC Riverside suffers a data breach exposing the personal information of 8,000, AT&T is going to settle a data breach complaint by agreeing to pay $25 million and for the Rippleshot content of the week, we've put together a great infographic using Rippleshot research to determine the top five most compromised merchant categories in the U.S. 

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples

Verizon 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report Recap

Posted by Zach Walker on Apr 16, 2015 9:03:00 AM

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Earlier this week, Verizon released their annual security report, 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report.  With the help of 70 organizations from around the world, the 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) provides unparalleled insight into the various threats and security incidents that have plagued organizations of all sizes.  We’ve put together some of the key takeaways from the DBIR to highlight some of the major trends ranging from attack methods to the latest data breach trends.

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Topics: Industry News, Data Breach Statistics

Data Breach Ripples: Week of April 10

Posted by Zach Walker on Apr 10, 2015 1:30:00 PM

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In this week's issue: Uber hires a new security officer from Facebook, financial institutions and retailers are skirmishing over the upcoming EMV deadline, UC Riverside suffers a data breach exposing the personal information of 8,000, AT&T is going to settle a data breach complaint by agreeing to pay $25 million and for the Rippleshot content of the week, we've put together a great infographic using Rippleshot research to determine the top five most compromised merchant categories in the U.S. 

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Topics: Data Breach Ripples