Protect Your Data and Your Brand – Lessons to Learn from the Travelex Breach

One of the biggest business stories of the New Year has been the attack on Travelex’s network.

The company’s website and its services have been offline since New Year’s Eve in an effort to prevent the spread of ransomware. Nearly two weeks later there’s still no end in sight, with Travelex working to get systems back up.

Details are still sparse but the main concern for Travelex and customers is that sensitive customer data could have been compromised. If so, the company will face a significant fine from the ICO. Recovery is still ongoing and information is still being released so we will have to wait to see the outcome to discover how the breach happened.

The past few decades have seen a huge increase in cyber threats and breaches. This has led to concerns about how businesses address the issue of cybersecurity and opened discussions on the strategic perspectives on cyber security and cyber warfare, cyber security implementation, strategic communication, trusted computing, password cracking, systems security and network security.

With GDPR increasing the minimum fine for a breach, and companies like Curry’s recently fined £500,000 for a cyber attack (pre-GDPR enforcement), having a plan in place to counter cyber threats and protect customer data is vital. Post GDPR the fine values will increase dramatically as is the inability to “hide” data breaches meaning that reputation based loss has increased dramatically too. This will be evident as time progresses for Travelex as they struggle to regain customer trust in their brand. There is a knock on too in that both Tesco and Sainsbury use their services and this may well be re-evaluated in the coming months.

To survive in today’s economy, companies must balance seamless digital experiences with fail-safe security. When companies fail to deliver on security, not only do they have to be concerned about the financial loss but also the detrimental effect on brand reputation and customer trust.

Customers will be understandably concerned about their personal data and once the damage has been done it can be extremely difficult to regain the trust of current and future customers. Look at Talk Talk, which is only just now recovering some years later.

Ensuring you understand the risks, and have backups and security measures in place to prevent breaches, reassures customers of your commitment to protecting their personal information from getting into the wrong hands.

IntraLAN has the capability, resources and tools available to help identify breaches early, recover losses, and ultimately monitor and protect valuable customer data from this type of breach.

Understanding cyber issues is an ongoing process and to help you on your digital transformation journey IntraLAN offers a discovery service where you can gain additional insight on the subject.

Our Cyber Threat Defence Assessment is free of charge and conducts an essential analysis of your cyber security risks, addressing open problems in the cyber world and focusing on cyber operations as a tool in your security policy.

Contact us to learn how we can help you protect your valuable data from misuse.