Recently, telephone companies TerraCom and YourTel America left the personal details of 300,000 people out and ready for cybercriminals to access. Social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, addresses, and other information were exposed because the companies put the data on an open web server rather than destroying it after the data had been verified. As icing on the cake, the companies wrote a “cease and desist†letter to Scripps Howard News Service to prevent word from getting out.
Fortunately, the FCC didn’t let it slide and had fined the companies $10 million. However, punishment after the fact isn’t the issue. Consumers expect their information to be protected when it is shared with professional organizations. When a company holding that many accounts doesn’t have the basic concept of protection or elementary security in place, it makes consumers second-guess everything. It is time for all of us to double check and ask companies what safeguards they have in place when we share our personal information. Based on this incident, no one can be too careful. For a full article on this story, click here:: Private Consumer Data Leaked After Being Left On Publically Accessible Server
[sc:mbtc]
[sc:mbta]