Cases of Data/Security Breach on the Rise: Causes and Effects - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the recent past, cases of security or data breach have been on the increase across the globe due to the constant technological innovations and advancement ( Plachkinova & Maurer, 2019). Data or security breach is considered to be the unintentional or the intentional release of specific, confidential, and secure information to a new and untrusted environment. In most cases, incidences of security breach usually range from organized crimes, political activists, and poor disposal of the already used computer equipment. Security breach involves loss of sensitive information such as people’s health information, trade secrets, and financial information such as bank details and credit cards. In case of any security breach, the company involved must adhere to the security breach notification laws that require the company to inform the affected individuals so that they can implement the necessary remedies. This paper intends to discuss security breach at eBay Company.

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Security Breach at eBay Company

eBay is considered to be an international e-commerce company that is based in the united states. The company usually plays an essential role in facilitating business that involves customer to customer sales, particularly through the website. The eBay website acts as an online shopping and auction platform in which businesses and people sell their goods and services globally. The website is freely used and accessed by any individual, for instance, the buyer and the seller. The seller is only charged a little amount for listing an item that has exhausted the free listing chances. Due to the easy and unrestricted access, eBay’s company website experienced a security breach in the year 2014, exposing the whole list of the company’s website users and their respective confidential information (Green, 2018).

Who and What Was Compromised?

The security breach on eBay's website led to the exposure of approximately 145 million users from different parts of the globe (Sidhu et al., 2016). The security breach exposed sensitive information concerning the clients, such as their address, names, encrypted passwords, and dates of births. Exposing such information to hackers compromised the safety of most individuals through various ways that include their accounts were at risk of being robbed, they were at risk of being harmed or kidnaped, and they were also at risk of being framed for offenses that they never committed. To gain access to the unauthorized website user’s information, the hackers compromised the login credentials of three eBay company employees. Based on the investigations, the hackers had complete access to the user’s information for more than 229 days (Green, 2018). This was enough time for the hackers to compromise the entire user’s database and also expose the client’s confidential information.

Network Technology That Was Involved in the Breach

The network technology that was involved in the breach is the wide-area network, which usually connects computers that have a larger physical distance. The wide area network allows the low voltage devices and computers to connect, thus making it easy for people to communicate when they are far apart. During the security breach, the hackers h compromised the wide-area network, thus gaining access to all the global users’ private information or details. Due to the wide-area network's vast reach, it is usually managed by numerous administrators. The hackers, therefore, had to ensure that they had access to several worker's credentials in order to have total access to the website's user’s information.

How the Breach Could Have Been Prevented

In order to prevent the security breach, the eBay company should have implemented various mitigation or prevention strategies that include, first, maintaining an automatic update system. In most cases, automatic updates are usually very essential in maintaining the network's health; for instance, the software update usually prevents the system from any antivirus attack. Since a manual update is considered expensive and time-consuming, the organization has maintained an automatic software update for most of its programs.

Secondly, training the employees, most security breach cases are usually successful due to the inside threat that is facilitated by the workers. To prevent such cases, the eBay company should have trained the employees on network safety. This will make it easy for them to take necessary precautions in order to avoid any breach; for instance, they will protect their login credentials. The employees will also be able to monitor any incidences of security breach within the system and report the cases on time to the relevant authorities.

Thirdly, using standardized software. The eBay company should have protected the system using standardized software that ensures that the website users cannot install any software without the systems supervisors’ approval. Failing to know the software that your network uses usually increases the system's security vulnerability. The system managers should, therefore, ensure that the computers are using the same softwares, such as the operating system plugins and browsers.

Relation of the Breach to My Life And Specifically and my Computer Environment

The eBay security breach relates to my life in that it helps me to realize the risks that I usually expose myself to when using public websites or domains that are not well monitored or regulated. For instance, my private credentials, such as password and financial data, are likely to be breached ( Plachkinova & Maurer, 2019). The breach also enables me to identify the measures that I should take or put in place in order to avoid any case of security breach. For instance, I should ensure that I am aware of the softwares that are running on my computer and also use standardized softwares that prohibit the installation of unauthorized softwares.

Conclusion

Cases of security breach are on the rise in different parts of the world. The issue of security breach at eBay led to the exposure of user’s confidential information such as passwords, names, addresses, and dates of birth. Exposure of this information is perceived to have put the lives of many website users at risk since the hackers could initiate attacks against them. In order to ensure that users were safe from any harm, the company advised them to change their passwords and financial information.

References

Green, J. M. (2018). Risk radar: Security breach. Company Director, 34(5), 30. https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=141224993982484;res=IELAPA

Plachkinova, M., & Maurer, C. (2019). Security breach at target. Journal of Information Systems Education, 29(1), 7. http://jise.org/Volume29/n1/JISEv29n1p11.pdf

Sidhu, J., Sakhuja, R., & Zhou, D. (2016). Attacks on eBay. https://www.eecs.yorku.ca/course_archive/2015-16/W/3482/Team12_eBayHacks.pdf