Businesses Advised to Secure Databases to Secure Data and Customer Loyalty

There has been another quite large breach in recent days of data and management company Modern Business Systems. An update to the original numbers said that 258 million rows of personal data were leaked and to blame was a poorly secured and misconfigured database.

In this case, it was a MongoDB configuration that was inadequate and the hackers were able to access email addresses, names, birth dates, vehicle information, and occupations and share that information via the MEGA file sharing site. The cyber criminals used Shodan to find the open database and take advantage.

It’s important to properly secure and configure databases at all times, particularly those that contain information that is considered confidential or sensitive. This data meets those requirements. It’s data that can be used for fraud and/or identity theft, so leaving the data open to the Internet truly is a “rookie mistake.” If you are in charge of securing information at your organization or for any organization, make sure to study up how to do it correctly. If in doubt, find someone who specializes in such things and invest in the help. It’s a good idea to have the configuration tested once it’s set up too, just for peace of mind if nothing else.

Also, make sure all systems are kept updated and patched. Do this as soon as something is released to address a known vulnerability. Don’t wait, because hackers are actively searching for these all the time. They don’t account for anyone’s sleep cycle or time zone and they don’t always work “normal business hours” either.

MBS was contacted about the breach and quickly secured the database. However, not before significant damage was done. While there may be a monetary value associated to the breach at some point, it’s difficult to know what this will do to this company’s reputation and customer loyalty. Data breaches are up 15% already in 2016. Consumers affected by large-scale data breaches at companies are 65% less likely to continuing doing business with those organizations.