Cyber Attacks and Data Security

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation as well as digitalisation, the issue of cyber attacking is increasing at a rapid rate where the hackers hack the personal data and information of the people across the globe (Whitler and Farris, 2017). Cyber attacking refers to attack for hacking one or more computers where the data are stored. It hampers the organisational operation to manage data safety and security and it further deteriorates the firm’s performance in the recent years where customer’s loyalty has been hampered. In this study, the case rep[ort of Adobe attack, happened in the year of 2013 will be analysed and evaluated where the software fails to manage the data safety and security of the personal information of the users of Adobe. Through this study, it is also possible to identify the role of GDPR to protect the customer’s personal data and information in such cases of cyber attacking.

Case study analysis of Adobe attack 2013

Data breaches is one of the serious problems for the business or the software developers where the users start losing trust and loyalty on the developer or the business, where the important personalise information and data of the users has been hacked by the hackers. The purpose of hacking and cyber attacking are to disrupt, disable and destroy the database of the system and it raises issue in managing the data security and information safety. It destroys the protection of data and information where data loss hampers the brand image or the image of the software system where the users loss their trust on that. In the year of 2013, October, cyber attacking in adobe was one of the biggest issues in 21st century, where the personal data of the adobe users have been hacked. It is an unexpected one, where there is strong system and software to protect the user’s data and information and there are millions of users who successfully utilise the adobe system (Kocieniewski, 2013). However, such data breaches hamper the customer’s trust and loyalty towards the software and the business, which also hampers the business activities in long run. The brand image and the reputation of the software system in adobe have also been affected negatively (Kocieniewski, 2013).

Managing cyber security is the responsibility of the business to protect their customers in long run so that the shared personal information and data of the users cannot be utilised in a negative way in other purposes (Thomas and Thomson, 2018). However, the adobe failed to maintain the database management system and the incident happened which leads to data breaches and loss, where there are a variety of information and data of the adobe users, the information and data of the users are personalise ID in adobe, password, credentials, the information about credit and debit cards of the users as well as the expiry date of the cards, and these are important information about the users which must be protected with high security and software database and cloud computing, so that the organisation can ensure customer’s protection and data security (Adlakha et al., 2019). The CSO of Adobe confirmed that the recent cyber attack compromised the customer’s accounts and there are more than 38 million customers whose accounts are at risk. For encryption, the users have log in ID and password as well as there are other detailed information about the users. The institution confirmed that 2.9 million accounts had been affected for such cyber attacking incident, where the hackers are successful to access the personal information of the adobe users (BBC News, 2013). In order to protect the rest of the customers, it is necessary for Adobe to take immediate actions. Additionally, during the cyber attacking incident, the sources code for its Acrobat PDF document-editing software and ColdFusion web application creation products had also been hacked by the hackers with such illegal access and activities (Bell, 2018).

It raises the ethical, legal and professional issue in adobe, where there is breach of contract law suit, negligence lawsuit and regulatory enforcement (Kocieniewski, 2013). Violation of Data Protection Act 1998 has been occurred due to such cyber attack as well as there are other ethical issues such as lack of management of software system, poor management of transparency and accountability, lack of initiative to protect the user’s personal data and information, lack of integrity and objectivity and poor professional competence (Whitler and Farris, 2017). There is also some professionalism during the cyber attack which is hampering confidentiality at the organisational workplace, poor respect and integrity, lack of integrated software management program development, poor management of data safety and security and lack of honesty and integrity which raise negative image among the adobe users. It is hereby the responsibility of the company’s leader to manage the ethical code of conduct and professionalism to protect the adobe users and maximise their values.

Role of GDPR to tackle the issue of cyber attack

In this cyber attacking, it is the role of the business had to tackle the issue of protecting the customer’s safety and security. For mitigating the issue of cyber attacking of Adobe in the year of 2013, the CSO of Adobe arranged meeting to develop further solutions, where GDPR is playing a crucial role. There is also great role of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who took corrective actions to protect the adobe users across the globe. ICO provided immediate guidelines to the CSO to mange customer’s data where total users are more than 38 millions (Thomas and Thomson, 2018). Though there is 2.9 million of customers, whose data have already been hacked, the CSO arranged the meeting and executive the guidelines and planning of ICO to run their system successfully in future (Chatterjee and Sokol, 2019). In depth analysis of ICO and cooperation of the team members are beneficial for the adobe CSO to protect their data and security of the customers further. Day to day investigation and developing further software would also be useful for adobe CSO to protect their system in near future (Whitler and Farris, 2017). ICO took regulatory actions against the hackers and the reported data breach is being investigated efficiently to identify the hackers and protect the database of adobe. In addition to this, National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and other law enforcement or cybercrime agencies are also collaborative to protect the adobe users by taking corrective actions (Bell, 2018).

The principle of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is also executed in the system so that the adobe CSO can manage data security of the customers (Thomas and Thomson, 2018). Technical up gradation and data management system must be implemented efficiently so that it would possible to stop the hackers for hacking the personal information of remaining users but also punish them for such data breach (Thomas and Thomson, 2018). Through the corrective initiatives it is possible for the adobe CSO to manage data protection and secure the information successfully, where confidentiality and integrity are managed well. It was one of the biggest data breaches happened in the 21st century where the hackers stole the log in ID, password and credit and debit card information of about 3 million adobe users (Thomas and Thomson, 2018). Adobe shifted from selling desktop licenses to cloud based software-as-a-service (SaaS), which is one of the efficient move of adobe to protect the data security and safety of the adobe users. Different IT infrastructure and hiring the efficient employees must be executed in the company where CSO can secure their database in near future. It is also necessary to improve communication at the internal workplace, so that the employees can perform efficiently and mange the user’s data and information successfully (Garner, 2017). In order to tackle the data breach issue and cloud security, the company must focuses on authorisation key cloud security approach to develop strong boding with the customers as well as improve trust and loyalty so that the adobe users can share their personal information with the company for better management and services (Whitler and Farris, 2017).

Conclusion

It can be concluded hat, cyber attack is a major crime where data breach has been happened, and it is related to loss of loyalty and users in the company. The CSO of adobe faced difficulties to manage their users after such data hack, where the personal data and information related to log in ID and password, credit and debit card details have been hacked by the hackers. It is hereby considered a serious issue of cyber attack, where the CSO needs to take corrective measures immediately. Developing the infrastructure of the company as well as introducing the efficient software-as-a-service (SaaS) program and could computing with key authorisation would be a great initiative for the CSO to secure the database of the company and protect the customer’s data from the hackers. Hiring efficient staff members and software developer are mandatory for the CSO where it would be possible for the efficient and skilled workforce to manage data security and protect the adobe users efficiently.

Reference List

Adlakha, R., Sharma, S., Rawat, A. and Sharma, K., 2019, February. Cyber Security Goal’s, Issue’s, Categorization & Data Breaches. In 2019 International Conference on Machine Learning, Big Data, Cloud and Parallel Computing (COMITCon) (pp. 397-402). IEEE.

Chatterjee, C. and Sokol, D.D., 2019. Data Security, Data Breaches, and Compliance. Cambridge Handbook on Compliance (D. Daniel Sokol & Benjamin van Rooij editors, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

Garner, R.L., 2017. Evaluating Solutions to Cyber Attack Breaches of Health Data: How Enacting a Private Right of Action for Breach Victims Would Lower Costs. Ind. Health L. Rev., 14, p.127.

Thomas, L. and Thomson, A.C., 2018. From panic to pragmatism: De-escalating and managing commercial data breaches. Cyber Security: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, 2(1), pp.17-22.

Whitler, K.A. and Farris, P.W., 2017. The impact of cyber attacks on brand image: Why proactive marketing expertise is needed for managing data breaches. Journal of Advertising Research, 57(1), pp.3-9.