Skurio provides comment around Washington’s State Auditor data breach
February 2021 by Skurio
Following the news that Washington’s State Auditor office has suffered a data breach that exposed the personal information in 1.6 million employment claims, Skurio CEO Jeremy Hendy comments the following:
“Breaches often happen through a security failure at a supply chain partner, three or four levels removed from your own organisation. Public sector organisations have complex digital ecosystems, with sensitive data belonging to millions of individuals that is potentially flowing through hundreds of different technologies – many of which may not be visible.
No matter how good your own network security, someone else may lose your data and bad actors are ready to exploit this, which highlights the need to secure your data, not just your network. All organisations in a digital supply chain are generally businesses with their own supply chain – it is critical that they enforce security standards with their own suppliers, require ISO certification and set mandatory requirements for data processing.
Cyber criminals are experienced in using concerns of victims to their advantage when targeting them. Anyone included in the breach should be suspicious of communications about loans, relief or offers of help in particular”.