Target Security Breach

Target Security Breach

The company allowed a breach of security because when the employees in Bangalore received an alert on a possible threat, they notified the management but got no response. This way, the management knew that the system was compromised but choose to do nothing about or if they did, the security breach detection team was not notified. There is also a security set up in the system that was disabled. This is the feature that has the ability to notice a possible security threat and eliminate it. This is an additional reason for the breach being successful while in the company has a sophisticated system to prevent such attacks from being carried out (Davis, 2014). According to the report on the breach, the company appeared to be in the dark until the federal government approached them with information about the security breach in their systems.

Target was sued in a class action suit and had to settle the clients. Target spent a great deal of money for something they could have prevented had they responded to the alert notifications from Bangalore (Wolf, 2015). Target resorted to issuing more secure chip and pin cards to their clients. This would ensure that the information of the clients is harder to access. The company also employed personnel in charge of security. This means that the next time reports from Bangalore are received on a possible breach, there will be a response and action taken promptly. Legally, the clients had to be informed that the security systems and measures had been changed and upgraded but keep the actual details secret to avoid giving potential attackers an idea of what system they will be hacking. (Caulderwood, 2014)The company should also assure the clients of their security after the settlement so that the clients feel target is being responsible. Finally, the target incident should serve as an eye opener to all places that use credit cards to ensure that their clients are not in danger of being defrauded because of a breach in security in the company systems.

References

Caulderwood, K. (2014, October 09). Retail Data Breaches: What has Target Done to Protect Consumers? Retrieved from Business: www.ibtimes.com/retail-data-breaches-what-has-target-done-to-protect-consumers-1684942

Davis, S. (2014, March 13). Did Target ignore Data Breach Warnings? Retrieved from CBS This Morning: www.cbsnews.com/news/target-ignored-systems-hacking-warnings-report-says/

Wolf, J. (2015, April 2). What Have You Learned, Target? Retrieved from Slate Future Tense: www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/04/target_data_breach_settlement_convincing_companies_to_take_security_seriously.html