If You Don’t Protect the Corporate Board, Your Shareholders And
Clients/Customers…
You Become A target!
By Nick Ashton, Founder, CEO,
Tracometry Group of Companies.
When
they chose the name Target for their stores it was a great idea, what do you think
now? They are the target in so many ways
and from reports, their profits plummeted in the 4th quarter 2013 due
to the hacking incident. Which by the
way did not have to happen!
If the
CEO,CFO or Trust & Security Director would return our calls we leave with the Gatekeepers, we want to resolve the issues and bring back the Trust to Target for their Shoppers and
their Profit margins!.
Seriously,
Key
Talk is the answer.
If they
were using Key Talk for their Data in Motion, would have never occurred. Their Vendor’s password, which was hacked and
stolen, would have never happened the way it did. Theft from a refrigeration company, they got
hacked and their Target Vendor password was stolen and then used to place
malicious software in their main data servers.
A cold thought, so to speak. I
called them, but Joe has never returned my call, I am still waiting to assist
them.
I
believe the following words and video helps in understanding our philosophy:
The
Keeper of Data and Other People's Personal Information, Has Solid Obligations
To Protect At All Costs! That is YOU,
not just the IT Department!
It Is
Data on the Move Or In-Transit That Is At Its Most Vulnerable. The swiping of a bank card initiates a data
flow there and back and it must be protected.
Look, Passwords
Are Human Keys and It Is the Importance of Securing the Log-in Without Human
Intervention That Key Talk Developed and Uses Successfully for our clients.
Humans
Make Errors, This Is the Reason Data Doors Are Left Open For Hackers, Phishers
and Man In The Middle Brutal Attacks!
BYOD
(Bring Your Own Device) Is Not Only Possible With KeyTalk, It Is Welcomed With
Open Secured Arms. That means using your
devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones securely.
We Shut
The Front Door and the Back Door!
Stopping the human error factor for Data in Motion.
Law Enforcement VEHICLE Laptop, Tablet & Smartphone SECURE
WIRELESS ACCESS TO POLICE WEB-PORTALS For The Data In Motion Environment
By Nick Ashton, Founder, CEO,
Tracometry Group of Companies.
It is a PROACTIVE approach that wins all the
time...
The Five P Principle - Prior Preparation Prevents Poor
Performance!
Being REACTIVE is a Deception,
Distraction and a Delusion as You,
are Always
One Step Behind in Your Actions…
Wasting
Time, Money and Re$ource$ You Can Ill Afford!
Hacking, Phishing and
Man in the Middle Brutal Attackers
could care less who or what you, they just want your data and information,
which is either used specifically by them or sold to the highest bidder.
Public
Safety Departments worldwide are susceptible to computer attacks and the theft
of vital and private information as anyone else or in fact, even more so!
With the
reduction budgets, especially for law enforcement, which on average is 20% per
department, holes, gaping holes within administration are being left wide
open. In the IT Department this is a
totally unacceptable as it costs even more when you are dealing from a REACTIVE
standpoint.
Protection
of Data on the Move or in Motion is a Priority!
This video will explain more, both logically and technically.
Most
wireless communication solutions are by nature, unsecure, not even to discuss
the ever increasing data in motion threats when exchanging highly classified and
private information.
In addition
network coverage in some areas the operations take place, is not always
available. As a result vital systems will be unable to work properly and become
unresponsive due to absence of a network signal.
When the
network signal is available again, traditional police systems need to be logged
in again to get access, resulting in a daily loss of 8% of effective patrolling
hours per police officer.
With KeyTalk
short lived certificates the officers stay logged in for the duration of the
certificate and when in reach, of a network connection, on-line data will be
available automatically, saving time and frustration.
Due to
KeyTalk’s certificate technology the car, laptop, tablet and or smartphone is
identified and becomes trusted to connect to the web-portal positively,
excluding Man in the Middle attacks.
Even using
the right log in credentials no access is granted if the car, laptop, tablet and
or smartphone is not known and therefore not trusted.
Secure your
Data Streams with KeyTalk and effectively increase your budgets aptitude. After all, why make more work and expense
when PROACTIVELY,
you will be ahead of the game!
Naivety, False trust and peer pressure Within the Enclaves
of Our
Education Centers Is Fueling Criminal Acts
By Nick Ashton, Founder, CEO,
Tracometry Group of Companies.
The hubs of
learning are teaching more than the three R’s, it is the three D’s
Drug use,
manufacturing and selling
Data Extraction
(Hacking, Phishing & Man
In The Middle Brutal Attacks)and Identity
Theft,
Dumbing
Down of Intelligent Potential
Two are
criminal acts, the last one should be!
Peer Pressure is more prevalent today, than ever
before. Those that are wanting to learn
are having their will to be educated diminished by the unsocial actions of
others. Many falter under the misnomer to
go along with the behavior, just to fit in.
Schools,
colleges and universities are havens of information to be taken from
unsuspecting individuals. Phishing
and Man in the Middle attacks are happening in all of these
establishments as we speak.
It is the Duty
of Care of the administration to protect the unwitting from these known
issues. Ignoring or watering down the
possibilities of data theft, which leads to personal information, such as
Social Security Numbers, Bank card numbers and passwords and even more personal
data of the individual’s family and background being criminal used, is a
failure that is occurring worldwide.
It
must stop!
Is it
possible to protect all from these digital miscreants?
Yes!
It is not just up to the faculty to provide Trust
and Security of Information, each individual has to participate and there
will be rule changes.
We are surrounded by computers which are input and output
devices that includes your Smartphone, Tablet and Laptops. It would be nice if all devices could be
trusted to transmit and receive on all data networks.
They
can!
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is part of the Key Talk Solution of Protecting
Data in Motion.
So why are we not talking?
It is SERIOUS matter and getting worse day
by day.
It is not IF it
is going to happen to you, it is WHEN!Then it is
too late…
Believe it or not, there are companies who have developed the
solution for these issues. Key Talk is more than
one step ahead of the situation and there to assist with virtually zero
managerial impact on the day to day running of your IT requirements. Not a new
company, they have been protecting Europe for over twenty years.
Although some schools, colleges and universities will have
expensive security in place, that sadly is not doing the job that is demanded
today, KEYTALK overlays the existing system without
having to replace or make radical changes.
In our case it is Plug and Secure!
Just ask
the IT/Trust and Security Director at the University of Maryland how they are
feeling regarding the outright criminal act of stealing 300,000 Social Security
Numbers and the need now to spending monies on credit protection for those
people for at least the next year. This is a reactive move, which should
not be needed if you are PROACTIVE!
Universities
have long been a favorite target for hackers bent on pilfering private data for
identity theft and exploitation.
Since
2005, when breaches at universities began being recorded, an average of
1,268,394 records have been exposed in the US per year.
Numbers
have been declining, however. In 2011, a reported 478,490 records were
breached. 2013 it has built yet again and 2014 is not off to a good start!
To
complicate matters, higher education has a reputation for employing looser data
security protocols in general, making those susceptible to accidental data loss
and exposure.
The
breadth and volume of personal data collected by universities, coupled with
high turnover and a generally technically un-savvy population, makes the
problem of data loss at institutions nearly epidemic in
nature.
A
prominent educational group suffered damages from highly skilled students
hacking their network, allowing them to change student grades and accessing
upcoming tests and exams.
Investigating
the source of the hacks revealed that students hacked the login web-portal
installing Trojans on teacher/professor computers to obtain their
usernames/passwords.
During an
initial pilot program of 30.000 teachers and professors, KeyTalk’ s solutions
provided all known and identified laptops, tablets and smartphones with short
lived certificates to secure data in motion.
As a
result, students who still manage to obtain the teacher/professor’s
authentication credentials through Malware or Phishing, are unable to
use them, since KeyTalk authenticates the laptop,
Tablet or Smartphone instead of the user.
With the KeyTalk
solution being software based, cost could be significantly reduced
when comparing to traditional physical security tokens.
Maintenance
wise the solution required around 0.1 FTE to manage once up and running and
could also be offered as a managed service by the providing partner.
Since the KeyTalk
solution makes use of standards, existing school and university
network infrastructure could be re-used, requiring no additional investments.
Additionally
the KeyTalk solution scaled sufficiently to allow the
300,000 students in the pilot group to also make use of the solution, allowing
for secure read access to their privacy sensitive school files.
When
they chose the name Target for their stores it was a great idea, what do you think
now? They are the target in so many ways
and from reports, their profits plummeted in the 4th quarter 2013 due
to the hacking incident. Which by the
way did not have to happen! 
