In this week's issue: the Army National Guard discloses a data breach, a California-based hotel group has been breached, Walmart Canada is investigating a potential breach involving it's photocentre, cyber insurance rises in popularity to meet a growing need, and in this week's blog post, we take an in depth look at the upcoming October 2015 EMV deadline.
An unknown number of current and former Army National Guard members dating back as far as 2004 have been involved in a data breach. Reports indicate that this breach occurred when a contract employee unintentionally uploaded sensitive files to an unapproved data center. The sensitive information stored in these files contained personally identifiable information (PII) including names, mailing addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. In a statement released by the Pentagon, the specific details involving when the breach occurred and how many Army National Guard members are at risk was not disclosed.
This data breach is unrelated to the two data breaches involving the Office of Personnel Management that exposed the personal information of 21.5 million Americans.
A California-based hotel group confirmed that payment cards used at Evans Hotels properties were compromised in a data breach. Evans Hotels discovered that backup payment card readers used in circumstances involving high customer traffic had been tampered with and that malware was discovered on computers at the front desks of its properties. The hotel group discovered that a portion cards that transacted with the hotel group from September of last year to March 5, 2015 when the breach was initially discovered. Evans Hotels has stated that identifying all of the affected guests is proving to be more difficult than expected, recommending that any guests that transacted during the above time frame should monitor their account statements for suspicious activity.
In an effort to reduce any further damage, Walmart Canada took down its online photocentre after learning about a potential data breach involving its customer’s payment card data. On Monday, visitors to the site were greeted with a message informing that a potential data breach involving customer payment card data. Walmart has launched a forensic investigation to determine the total number of affected customers and the scope of the breach. In a statement on the Walmart Photocentre's website regarding the details of the breach, Walmart does not believe that Walmart.ca, Walmart.com or any in-store transactions.
Following the massive data breaches plaguing businesses from a variety of industries, more and more organizations are looking to cyber insurance to help offset the costs of a data breach. Studies have shown that breached organizations can greatly benefit from having a cyber insurance plan in place to help offset lost business costs associated with a data breach. In a 2015 RIMS Cyber Survey, 75 percent of respondents indicated that they planned to buy cyber insurance in the next two years.
Is cyber insurance plans are the answer to rampant data breaches? Check out our blog post where we answer that very question.
With the looming October, 2015 EMV deadline approaching, cardholders in the U.S. are receiving new credit and debit cards embedded with a microchip. While the majority of countries with EMV-enabled payment cards require the chip’s dynamic transaction code and the cardholder’s PIN to complete a transaction, cardholders in the U.S. will only have to provide signature verification instead of entering a PIN. In this week’s blog post, we’re going to explain the differences in payment methods, the impact each method will have on cardholders, financial institutions and retailers.
Looking for more information on EMV-enabled cards, check out our three-part blog series here.
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