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Long prison terms should prove strong deterrent says IT security expert

Long prison terms should prove strong deterrent says IT security expert

 

Albert Gonzalez, the hacker who masterminded the breaches at TJX where 11.2 million payment card details alone were stolen, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for the part he played in organising one of the largest thefts of payment card numbers in history.

 

Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer of Imperva commented: “The lesson to draw from the sentencing is simple: Enterprises are fighting today’s cyber war with yesterday’s technology. Hackers continue to put up a persistent and very real threat to enterprise systems.

 

Don’t overlook app and databases security

 

“The current data security spend is focused on enterprise networks, yet the Gonzalez attacks took distinct advantage of weaknesses in the database and applications. And this is an industry wide problem.

 

“In 2009, the top ten data breaches reveal an interesting fact few have noticed 74% of lost data came from database breaches, 19% from application breaches and 7% from network breaches. Yet, more than 90% of 2009’s $16 billion [£10.8bn] in security spend was on network security. This disconnect needs to be remedied,” he added.

 

“This sentencing will hopefully act as a deterrent to cyber crime in the US. However, the threat to enterprises from hackers like Gonzalez remains persistent. Unfortunately, most companies are not prepared, fighting today’s cyber war with yesterday’s technology,” he concluded.