If a data breach can happen at an enterprise as large as Target, it’s safe to say it can happen anywhere.
The recent news that the credit and debit card information of some 40 million Target customers was compromised stresses the importance of decision-makers ensuring that sensitive data is thoroughly protected. Hackers reportedly gained access to the personal information of all Target customers who used their cards to shop at the retailer between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, 2013.
How’d that happen? The retailer has yet to divulge the hackers’ methods, but some industry experts suspect that Target’s point-of-sale terminals were infected with malware that copied and transmitted the credit card information stored on a credit card’s magnetic strip. Other analysts suspect it was an inside job.
The holiday-season breach couldn't have come at a worse time. Because of the consumer protections in place, however, the data-theft victims are unlikely to suffer long-term financial losses. But those customers did have their credit and withdrawal limits lowered in the wake of the attack, timing which likely didn't sit too well for many of them ahead of the holidays.
To try to make amends, Target offered customers a 10 percent discount on recent purchases, free credit reporting, and promised the consumers wouldn't be held accountable for fraudulent charges. The discount retailer also warned its customers about possible scams resulting from the breach. It remains to be seen if these moves will restore customer confidence; in any case, the bad press generated is likely to somewhat impede sales, at least in the near future.
Target’s data breach comes in the wake of similar data breaches that occurred at Best Buy in 2011 and at TJX, the parent company of T.J. Maxx, in 2007. At Best Buy, customers’ email addresses were stolen through third-party vendors – twice in two months – then sent malware and viruses. In the case of TJX, more than 45 million customers’ credit card information was stolen. TJX was forced to pay a fine up to $40.9 million for that breach.
Though these breaches are difficult to entirely eradicate as criminals continue to find new methods, forward-thinking companies can take strong steps to safeguard themselves from such attacks, preventing negative publicity and hefty fines. One such step is to team with a managed security provider that will take proactive steps protecting sensitive data.
Managed security providers offer firewall protection, intrusion prevention, antivirus and anti-spyware services, PCI compliance and much more. By employing their services, business-owners are able to focus on other mission-critical aspects of their organizations while leaving a team of professionals in charge of ensuring the safety of the sensitive data in their systems.
Just because major corporations like Target, Best Buy and TJX had to suffer data breaches and the resulting fallout before learning the consequences of failing to commit to security doesn't mean your business has to suffer the same fate. Click here to learn about Hostway's managed security offerings, guaranteed to strengthen the protection of your most sensitive data.
SOURCES:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/25/us-target-databreach-idUSBRE9BN0L220131225
http://www.informationweek.com/security/attacks-and-breaches/target-breach-10-facts/d/d-id/1113228
The volume of mergers and acquisitions so far in 2013 represents a 10 percent increase over the same period in 2012, according to a recent webinar led by representatives from Citigroup and Deloitte Consulting.
That uptick in prevalence is attributed to the fact that businesses are seeking economies of scale – especially in this difficult economic climate. Mergers and acquisitions also include myriad other benefits, such as reduction in vendor time to market, a broader array of knowledge and expertise, and growth in share of market.
Web Hosting
The last few years have seen a slew of large communications, web hosting and IT service companies acquire other businesses in order to bolster their hosting properties. Rather than compete against one another, these companies decided that combining their forces was the more profitable and effective tactic.
In 2011, for example, Verizon’s $1.4 billion purchase of Terremark sent a clear message that telephony companies were willing to invest in hosting, according to Tom Millitzer, President of NCC International. One logical conclusion that could be drawn from such an investment is that the hosting market is ripe for the picking and will continue to grow as decision-makers realize the benefits of harnessing the power of the cloud.
Managed Service Providers
When it comes to the managed service provider (MSP) space, the rate of mergers and acquisitions has been wholly inconsistent over the past decade. One reason for this is the fact that when companies decide to outsource their IT needs, they expect to have a certain level of hands-on care from their MSP. If MSPs were to grow into industry juggernauts, it’s more than likely that they would lose that personal touch, and customers might decide their computing infrastructure was vulnerable as a result of the perceived decrease in attention.
With that in mind, it’s important to note that there still have been some significant acquisitions in the space, with IBM purchasing SoftLayer, and CenturyLink buying Savvis. With IBM’s purchase, the company acquired more than 20,000 customers scattered across 140 countries using SoftLayer’s cloud computing infrastructure. Such a move allows IBM to broaden its cloud portfolio offerings for both SMBs and enterprise. CenturyLink’s $2.5 billion acquisition of Savvis further reinforces the notion that industry juggernauts understand the future lies in the cloud with managed services.
The industry’s major players certainly have the wallets to afford those kinds of acquisitions, but such is not the case for all managed service providers. An uncertain tax future has created an environment where an uncharacteristically high percentage of MSPs are open to selling their businesses. Companies are increasingly conducting business across state lines and international borders, which makes it hard to plan for the ever-changing tax implications such businesses have. In 2012, the MSPAlliance noted that there was an increase in MSPs preparing their businesses for sale for precisely this reason.
Still, the future for MSPs remains bright. According to recent research, the market for managed services will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 12.4 percent each year through 2018. Furthermore, Gartner predicts the global outsourcing market will reach $288 billion this year. As long as there is money to be made and efficiency to be realized, one can expect mergers and acquisitions in this industry to continue.
The acceleration of businesses’ migration to the cloud shows no signs of slowing, according to the 2013 Future of Cloud Computing survey of 855 business users, IT decision-makers and cloud vendors.
Of those surveyed, 75 percent indicated they already use the cloud in some form, representing an increase from 67 percent of respondents in 2012. These results align with GigaOM’s prediction that the global cloud computing market will explode to $158.8 billion next year, more than doubling in size from 2011.
The survey produces several further insights:
So what does it all mean? Decision-makers are realizing the benefits of hybrid clouds, as they’re able to leverage elements of both public and private clouds to construct custom architecture. Information that is non-essential to businesses can be stored in the more affordable public cloud, while sensitive materials can be held in a private cloud. Together, this creates the kind of versatile environment that brings enhanced agility and scalability to businesses.
Business owners are also concluding that leveraging SaaS, IaaS and PaaS simply makes sense. Odds are that most companies aren’t in the cloud business, and instead focus on serving their customers in some other regard. With that being the case, business owners are increasingly their technological infrastructure over to a cost-effective team of hosting experts. This frees up substantial resources and allows them to focus on mission-critical tasks.
Businesses increasingly understand the benefits cloud hosting affords, and they’re flocking to these versatile solutions. As hosted offerings continue to be refined and delivered in a more cost-effective manner, this trend should continue.
“Big Data” – The term might conjure an image of downward-scrolling characters from the Matrix movies, or of room-sized computers from 40 years ago. But what Big Data means in its modern context could have a significant impact on your business.
Fueled by algorithmic advances that have yielded affordable software alternatives, Big Data analytics are becoming more accessible to smaller businesses. Since expert researchers are no longer required to generate recommendations from the analysis, more companies are leveraging the technology.
The most common use of Big Data is trying to determine customer behavior through predictive analytics. The “Big Data” in this usage in mined in the fashion you’re most familiar with – many popular websites try to target customer subgroups by monitoring buying and browsing behavior.
Again, this ability used to be the domain of only large, well-funded corporations, because the necessary data analysis for characterizing consumers requires extreme hardware resources. But as CPUs and processors become capable of handling greater volumes of data, and new algorithms improve the efficiency of the process, the list of Big Data’s potential users grows.
Different companies find different ways to put predictive analytics to work. An e-commerce firm might use the data to identify up-selling or cross-selling opportunities. Pigeonholing a consumer into a group displaying similar activities allows a website to make a good guess at what ads or offers are best to present to that consumer.
Is Facebook getting better at presenting you relevant advertisements? This is the application of Big Data at work – a much less hit-or-miss method of luring in consumers. More research yields more knowledge.
Predictive models using Big Data are also being used in companies’ decision processes. As explained by Target Data’s EVP Scott Bailey in a late July piece in Forbes Magazine, a business may try to simulate a tactic change to determine its potential success or failure. An article at IT Pro Portal discusses risk mitigation using Big Data, where real-time transaction analysis quickly red-flags suspicious items – Big Data provides more indicators to decide if any transaction should be suspected of being fraudulent.
So how can Big Data be put to work for you? Here are a few ideas:
Now cost-effective and simpler to attain, Big Data is producing more and more refined metrics and insights. See what Big Data’s all about – do yourself and your business a favor.