Rippleshot Blog

The Rippleshot team wants to wish you a happy new year and we look forward to what 2015 brings!

In this week's issue: healthcare related data breach costs could reach $5.6B this year, the data breach at JPMorgan Chase could have been prevented with an easy security fix, Nvidia suffers a data breach exposing its employees login information and finally, Rippleshot takes a look back at the year of 2014, dubbed “the year of the data breach.”

In a year of broad-ranging and publicly damaging corporate data breaches, the malware attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment joins the ranks of companies like Home Depot, JP Morgan and eBay who suffered incredible losses at the hand of deft cyber-attackers.

Here’s the timeline of everything we've learned so far:

What a year it has been for data security. Earlier this month, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker deemed 2014 “the year of the data breach,” and we find it hard to disagree. Kicked off by the mega-breach at Target at the close of the year prior, 2014 saw large-scale data breaches at many well-known companies such as Michaels, P.F. Changs, Home Depot and Jimmy John’s. Did the industry see the tidal wave coming? We take a look back at last year’s predictions and what made an impact in 2014.

In this issue: a U.S. District Judge has ruled that card issuers can sue Target for it’s 2013 data breach, Charge Anywhere, a mobile payment provider, suffers a data breach that lasted nearly 5 years, the cyber attack that hit Sony Studios could cost the company as much as $100 million and a parking company in St. Louis, MO suffers a data breach at Union Station.

It’s certainly starting to feel like the discussion is less about if retailers are going to suffer from a data breach, but when. According to USA Today, over 40% of companies had a data breach in the past year, which is up 10% over the year prior. We all know the best defense is a good offense, but with no singular silver bullet solution to stop data breaches, many retailers are relying on cyber insurance to protect themselves. Is it enough? We take a look..

Welcome to this week's "Data Breach Ripples" for December 01, 2014. In this issue, we focus on Sony's recent data breach, a data breach compromising parking facilities in Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle, several banks in the Virgin Islands being hit by a security breach and the personal information of over 25,000 hospital patients in North Carolina has been accessible online for over 2 years.

Welcome to the "Data Breach Ripples" for the week of November 24, 2014. In this week’s issue, we cover the growing list of civil suits facing Home Depot, the recent cyber attack on Sony Pictures and retailers shifting their focus to protecting consumers’ data.

Get caught up with latest news regarding data breaches and key information security topics for the week of November 17th. 

In hindsight, many big-time security breaches appear as if they were bound to happen. Home Depot, for example, was following a number of poor practices before it suffered a major breach earlier this summer. According to an article in the New York Times, the hardware and home improvement giant was using antivirus software from 2007, wasn't continuously monitoring the network for suspicious behavior and its vulnerability scans were few and far between. In fact, only a handful of stores even received such service. These were all factors that led to the incident where over 50 million customers were likely compromised following months of fraudulent activity.

We are very excited to announce that Rippleshot has been named one of ten up-and-coming financial technology solutions providers by American Banker and BAI.

Don't look now, but the holiday shopping season is right around the corner. As we get into November, we are only four weeks away from Thanksgiving weekend, the unofficial start of the season, although if you were to visit a local mall today you would likely find several holiday-themed decorations hanging in various retail stores. As a consumer, you probably don't like being reminded of Christmas that early in the year, but it does show how seriously many retailers take the season. It's a genuine opportunity for organizations to increase revenue and meet their goals by the end of the year. Of course, that's contingent on merchants making the most of the season by ensuring they maximize revenue. This year, retailers hope to increase performance by tightening their security on customer information.

Claiming that retailers don't care about the security of their customers' data is not accurate, but one publication is making the case that retail organizations simply aren't doing enough to protect this sensitive information. They are too complacent, and therefore putting their customers at greater risk for fraud as they are more vulnerable to hacks and security breaches. 

We're thrilled to announce that out of 552 nominees, Rippleshot was chosen as one of ten "Up-and-Comer" winners at this year's Chicago Innovations Awards, held last night at the Harris Theater with nearly 1500 business and civic leaders attending.

On September 24th, Jimmy John’s, a famous Sandwich Shop franchise, reported that it “learned of a possible security incident involving credit and debit card data at some of Jimmy John’s stores and franchised locations.”

A study released by CreditCards.com and Princeton Survey Research on Monday found that 45% of cardholders surveyed would likely avoid their regular stores during the holiday shopping season if the retailer had recently experienced a data breach.