- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 6 months ago by Kridsada Sirichaisit.
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2020-10-06 at 4:25 pm #23058Kaung Khant TinParticipant
1. Provide a brief description of the story.
It is the event that happened at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The two employees from that department were targeted and cyber-attacked with phishing emails which leaked the medical records of the approximately 21,000 patients into the wrong hands over a period of more than one month.2. What is/are the impact of this data breach? Consequences of the data breach.
This cyber-attack entailed a series of catastrophic effects not only on the department itself but also on the patients as well. According to the investigation team, the IT department was not able to be aware of this malicious cyber-attack over a month. To compound the misery, the team could not assure if the hackers had access and copied the emails. Anyway, the emails contained the patients’ privacy data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, employment information, and other personal data. It was such a nightmare to the Minnesota Department of Human Services.3. How did the data breach occur?
The data breach occurred in a phishing way in which the two of the employees from the Minnesota Department of Human Services were sent two emails that appeared from a reputable source, in fact, they did not. Then these two employees were convinced to click the link provided in the phishing emails or do as the emails said which led to the data breach of the patients.4. What should be the main cause of the data breach? Provide a brief explanation of the cause of data breach, such as phishing, ransomware, HIPAA violation, database misconfiguration, human error, third-party vendor error)?
The main cause of the data breach is the combination of phishing and human error. In brief, it clearly was a phishing attack with emails targeted to the vulnerable aspect of the department’s data security system which was, here, human. It could be said that the employees were not suspicious not alert and put a bit of trust in the phishing emails.5. How could you prevent this data breach attack?
This kind of data breach attack could be prevented with two main measures. The first or immediate measure would be focused on the employees. The department should educate the employees to know the signs of a phishing email (such having poor grammar and lots of typos, trying hard to convince the victim to open the attachment, click on the link, or reply without enough detail, and appears to come from a relatable source) and ways to protect against the phishing mail (such as always being suspicious & alert, not trusting people too much, not to open attachments or click links, scanning for viruses before opening attachments).
The second or long-term measures should be based on the overall security system. Here it, for the phishing attack, breaks down into the following security measures. Firstly, the department should have proper administrative security measures which include adopting a security and privacy policy, governance of security risk management and response, and enforcing the adopted policy and continuous assessment. Secondly, the system, software, and network security measures should be taken such as having an antivirus, antispyware and personal firewall, updating the windows and browsers, implementing proxy servers for web browsing, using secure network protocols, and data encryption during transit. -
2020-10-08 at 10:06 pm #23201Sila KlanklaeoParticipant
Thank you for the short explanation and I agree with you in preventing this data breach attack.
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2020-10-20 at 11:21 pm #23439Kridsada SirichaisitParticipant
I agree with you. Security policy is the regulation that can prevent phishing attack.
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