Robert X. Cringely points out the hidden costs of running corporate IT over the public internet:
How cheap is IT, really, if it compromises customer data? Not cheap at all. Last year’s Target hack alone cost the company more than $1 billion, estimated Forrester Research. The comparably-sized Home Depot hack will probably cost about the same. JP Morgan Chase is likely to face even higher costs.
He wonders why companies aren't shifting to dedicated networks, like they used to make with leased lines.
Taking a bank or retail network back to circa 1989 would go a long way toward ending the current rash of data breaches. It would be expensive, sure, but not as expensive as losing all the money that Target and others have recently done.
Is this practical? If so, how would it be accomplished with modern equipment?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 10 2014, @06:41PM
The challenge is that most of the big data breaches recently have been companies that were in fact following correct procedures.
That doesn't sound like the case for Home Depot, at a minimum:
Former information technology employees at Home Depot claim that the retailer’s management had been warned for years that its retail systems were vulnerable to attack, according to a report by The New York Times. Resistance to advice on fixing systems reportedly led several members of Home Depot’s computer security team to quit, and one who remained warned friends to use cash when shopping at the retailer’s stores.
reference [arstechnica.com]