The MSP’s Cybersecurity Recap

Companies fined millions after data breach: Two companies are facing massive fines from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The U.K. government agency is handing down a fine of $230 million to British Airways and nearly $125 million to Marriott Hotels. Penalties for breaches like this are likely to increase under the General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR was enacted to give consumers more control and insight into their personal data and will require companies to ensure they are following data security procedures when they collect, process and store data.

Ford, TD Bank affected by cloud data breach: Various companies, including Ford and TD Bank, were impacted in a recent cloud data breach. According to reports, the IT provider for these companies accidentally exposed the information on Amazon S3 data buckets. The data buckets contained information on Attunity, the IT provider, such as employee email backups, a virtual network roadmap and personal information of Attunity employees. Leaked client data also included Ford technology information and TD Bank invoices.

Major technology companies targeted by ransomware attacks: Hackers from China have targeted eight major computer firms and MSPs throughout a year-long attack. The Cloud Hopper attacks have hit some major companies, including HPE, IBM and Fujitsu. The attackers are able to “hop” into client networks after attacking service providers and attempt to steal sensitive corporate and government information. It’s currently unclear how damaging these attacks have been, how many victims have been affected and what type of information may have been compromised.

Two Florida cities pay massive ransomware demands: Riviera Beach paid $600,000 in hopes of regaining access to its encrypted data after a run-in with ransomware, followed by Lake City paying $500,000 in a similar attack.