Day: January 29, 2021

  The COVID pandemic has caught everyone unaware. While we’ve all been busy adjusting to the new normal, cybercriminals have been making merry. They are taking advantage of the disrupted environment to carry out cyber attacks. This is evident as a recent study shows that the number of data breaches in 2020 has almost doubled with 3,950 confirmed breaches against 2,103 recorded breaches in 2019, with the year far from the end. About 80 per cent of the data breaches have occurred due to simple brute force attacks, which should raise serious concerns regarding data security. These cyber-attacks are also not limited to technologically weak enterprises but rather impacted big names that have strong data security measures in place. Here’s a look at six such enterprises that faced major data breaches during the COVID pandemic. Whitehat Jr. Whitehat Jr. recently reported a data breach exposing data of 2.8 lakh students and teachers due to multiple vulnerabilities in their infrastructure in November 2020. The exposed data contained student names, age, gender, profile photos, user IDs, parents name, and progress reports of minor students forming a major part of the exposed data. Salary details of WhiteHat Jr employees, as well as its internal documents and dozens of recorded videos of online classes being conducted by the platform, were also exposed, according to the researcher. Big Basket BigBasket, the popular Indian online grocery vendor was reported to have faced a data breach that affected the data of over  2 crore customers. As a result of this data breach, personal information such as email IDs, full names, IP addresses has been compromised and is reported to be put up for sale on the dark web. The data lost in the BigBasket breach, which was mostly that related to customers’ personal details, more than being critical to business operations warrant an extra degree of security. That’s because losing this data can not only be disastrous from a public relations perspective but can also land companies in legal trouble which can last for years and cost crores of rupees in damages. Twitter The Twitter data breach occurred on the 15th of July 2020. Cybercriminals hacked verified accounts of influential and well-known personalities on Twitter. How influential and well-known, you ask? Well, the hacked accounts included the names of Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Bill Gates, to name a few. The criminals behind the hack then proceeded to post fake tweets from the compromised accounts. The tweets promised USD 2,000 for every USD 1,000 sent to a Bitcoin address. The hackers had a big payday as they managed to make over a hundred thousand dollars in Bitcoin transactions. Marriott International The Marriott data breach happened on March 31, 2020. The data breach exposed data of more than 5.2 million guests who used the hotel’s loyalty application. The attack was carried out by using the login credentials of two Marriott employees. These employees had access to the customer data regarding the hotel chain’s loyalty program. Hackers accessed names, birthdays, travel and loyalty program information data in the data security breach. This is the second such attack faced by the hotel chain. The company reported a data breach in 2018, which compromised the data of around 500 million guests. Zoom Zoom, a video conferencing app, gained massive popularity during the pandemic. It simplified business meetings by allowing 100 participants for video conferencing at a time when enterprises over the world faced difficulties communicating with their workforce. This rising popularity made it the subject of a major data breach shortly. In the first week of April 2020, Zoom faced a major cyberattack. Around 500,000 Zoom account passwords were stolen and were available for sale on the dark web. Besides, the victims’ personal meeting URLs and HostKeys were available too. Clearview AI Clearview AI, a major firm dealing with facial recognition technology, became a victim of a data breach on February 26. The perpetrator of the attack gained unauthorized access to the Clearview AI’s entire client list. The data breach also left exposed around 3,000,000,000 photos scraped by the firm from social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Moreover, the number of user accounts opened by clients and the number of searches they had conducted were also compromised. The firm’s clientele includes major law enforcement agencies in the US, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, and other corporate firms. The firm is already mired in controversy regarding its use of facial recognition technology for matching social media images against suspected criminals’ photos provided by the police department. The data breach further adds fuel to the fire. While most of the data security breaches were due to external cyber attacks, there were some instances where data breach was internal and unintentional. The main reason for these data breaches were poor data security standards that left the data exposed to unauthorized individuals. Let’s have a look at some of these instances. Social media accounts data breach On August 1st, 2020 it was discovered that around 235 million Instagram, Tiktok and Youtube user profiles were compromised. This data security breach happened due to an improperly secured cloud database. A HongKong based company, Social Data was storing the data without password protection on their clouds. The data could be accessed by any individual easily as it was available freely on the internet. The data contained the following records: Profile name. Full real name. Engagement statistics. Number of followers. Age. Gender. Follower demographic. While most of the data mentioned above are available publicly, what’s alarming is that the database contained about 20% of the records contained a phone number or an email address. Such private information is susceptible to cyberattacks, and hence, a cause of major concern. 2. Virgin media A Virgin media database that contained personal details of 900,000 users were accessible online for about ten months before being discovered. The data security breach occurred due to an unsecured database, as it is reported that the database was ‘incorrectly…

Normal daily life involves a lot of people moving around the inside of buildings. In bustling transport hubs, busy shopping centers, office blocks and warehouses, people are constantly moving past each other and between rooms and floors. But for the moment, this way of life has been forced to a halt – and understandably so. Within an enclosed space, there is a greater chance of transmission of illness. So to restrict transmission, businesses must also control the movement of people through very busy buildings. The challenge today is how to do this as efficiently as possible, without affecting business interests. As we adjust to a new way of life, businesses must embrace innovative ways to optimize the density and flow of people through their premises, to protect workers, customers and visitors, while also protecting their businesses. The good news is – AI-powered video technology can support businesses of all sizes in this endeavor. Protecting people and businesses with AI video I ntelligent video cameras such as those within Hikvision’s Flow Control Solution, use people-counting technology coupled with dynamic digital signage to display how many people are entering and leaving a building or indoor area. The cameras feature highly accurate 3D binocular vision and deep learning algorithms to accurately count the number of people flowing through, even in the busiest sites with multiple entrances and exits. The same cameras can also support social distancing in areas where crowds and standing in line is unavoidable. When the camera identifies that people are standing closer than the pre-determined threshold, it will trigger an alarm. The cameras can also be linked to digital signage, to display a visual notice. For even greater reassurance, businesses can add in thermal and mask-detection camera technology, to help ensure people are safe to enter a location in the first place. Hikvision’s AI-powered cameras can intelligently identify whether someone is wearing a mask, while also effectively checking their skin temperatures. Equipped with this information, staff can then take appropriate action to reduce the risk of viral spread. Putting the technology into practice At a time when it’s incredibly hard for businesses to balance profitability with safety, Hikvision knows from the projects that they’re working on that AI-powered video can offer business value. Hikvision technology enables people managing office blocks, warehouses and supermarkets to accurately count everyone that enters and leaves the premises, to ensure they never exceed safe capacity. This data can also be linked to access control solutions, to physically prevent people from entering until it is safe to do so. Retailers, especially, can make use of digital signage to display how many people are in a store, so that customers understand why they may need to wait in line. Indeed, in retail – where it’s normal for people to wait at checkouts or crowd together in narrow aisles – making use of a Hikvision dual-lens camera can help businesses to maintain vital social distancing rules. Meanwhile, in indoor transport hubs – where people are not only gathering, but travelling on to new locations – adding in thermal screening and mask detection is especially valuable. Safe building capacity can be managed, while any travelers that may show signs of a raised temperature or who are not wearing masks can be informed. Technology such as Hikvision’s can essentially help businesses to reopen as safely and profitably as possible. Get the full back-to-business story However, choosing the right technology is only one part of the back-to-business story. Businesses should also be aware of the compliance, legal and HR requirements when installing and using this technology. And the technology must be effectively and expertly installed, to ensure it achieves its full potential.