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If only. For every Solarwinds, there are hundreds of breaches that never get more that a cursory reporting (if that). And Solarwinds is still in business (and

by kjs3 7mo ago

If only. For every Solarwinds, there are hundreds of breaches that never get more that a cursory reporting (if that). And Solarwinds is still in business (and some would call "taken private at pennies on the dollar" as a feature not a bug, but I digress), as are vastly more consequential examples (Equifax, anyone?). Yes...reputational damage is a thing, but in my experience (sitting in the decision making meetings, as a participant, many, many times in my career) it's a second-tier player at the end of the day. This is especially true of data breaches...I cannot count the number of times (in the last decade particularly) where the decision point was "What reputation damage? Everyone and their mother has had a data breach. No one cares.". I don't think they're wrong. This, like many issues of security and risk, is the consequence of the vast majority of the customers not caring. How many users dropped Facebook in 2019, or LinkedIn in 2021 (or 2012)? How many swore off Ticketmaster? Marriott? Adobe? eBay? And that's just ungodly massive breaches. So why would the average business give a steaming crap? In my dark little heart of hearts I sometimes think "what would it take for the average person to actually care", and then I realize what that looks like, and I don't sleep well for a couple of nights. Cheers!

jeffwask 7mo ago
Solarwinds YOY Revenue is up $100 million since then so even Solarwinds didn't take that big of a hit.
twunde 7mo ago
For people to care of would have to be like healthcare. The Change Healthcare breach cost 2B+ and led to a huge loss in market share. Or like AMCA, which went bankrupt after the breach (Labcorp's billing company). If you're a health tech company you can no longer insure your way out of the problem over you reach a certain size. The reality is that we need data breaches to be painful but maybe not company ending events unless it really is sensitive data. As patio11 likes to say the right level of fraud is not zero. There's a middle ground where we can increase company liability or reduce the damage caused by a beach.
- kjs3 7mo ago
  Optum360, still in business. HCA Healthcare, still in business. Excellus Healthcare, still in business after paying something like 50 cents per breached user. AMCA went out of business because their biggest customers said "damage control dictates we cut ties with you so we don't look complacent" (that is, like I said, the customers have to care to make a difference). And did anyone stop going to LabCore (after their own data breach, not AMCAs) or got a different doctor because the healthcare group they're part of got breached? Not likely. I don't think healthcare is ahead of the game here. But yes, until it becomes actually painful to companies and the people who run them, it won't get better. If a corp death penalty is off the table (I don't think it should be), I guess would be either/both proportionate fines (fines equaling a couple of hours of revenue don't cut it) or making some of the leadership personally accountable, a la SOX fines, asset forfeiture and criminal responsibility for responsible C-level execs. Hate on SOX all you want, it sure made finance executives care about what is going on in their organization.

by kjs3 7mo ago

jeffwask 7mo ago

Solarwinds YOY Revenue is up $100 million since then so even Solarwinds didn't take that big of a hit.

twunde 7mo ago

For people to care of would have to be like healthcare. The Change Healthcare breach cost 2B+ and led to a huge loss in market share. Or like AMCA, which went bankrupt after the breach (Labcorp's billing company). If you're a health tech company you can no longer insure your way out of the problem over you reach a certain size. The reality is that we need data breaches to be painful but maybe not company ending events unless it really is sensitive data. As patio11 likes to say the right level of fraud is not zero. There's a middle ground where we can increase company liability or reduce the damage caused by a beach.

kjs3 7mo ago
Optum360, still in business. HCA Healthcare, still in business. Excellus Healthcare, still in business after paying something like 50 cents per breached user. AMCA went out of business because their biggest customers said "damage control dictates we cut ties with you so we don't look complacent" (that is, like I said, the customers have to care to make a difference). And did anyone stop going to LabCore (after their own data breach, not AMCAs) or got a different doctor because the healthcare group they're part of got breached? Not likely. I don't think healthcare is ahead of the game here. But yes, until it becomes actually painful to companies and the people who run them, it won't get better. If a corp death penalty is off the table (I don't think it should be), I guess would be either/both proportionate fines (fines equaling a couple of hours of revenue don't cut it) or making some of the leadership personally accountable, a la SOX fines, asset forfeiture and criminal responsibility for responsible C-level execs. Hate on SOX all you want, it sure made finance executives care about what is going on in their organization.