Target Security Breach 2014 On December 15th, 2013, Target verified they were hacked. In as little as two weeks, millions of customer’s credit card and personal information were electronically stolen. Whose fault was it, technology or people? The Target security breach was successful because of two human failures. Target hired a “team of security specialists in Bangalore” who where part of FireEye, a recognized computer security firm, to monitor their computers at all times (Riley). This permitted Target’s security operations center in Minneapolis to be immediately notified of any suspicious activity. The sophisticated system sent out two alerts that should have stopped the hackers in their tracks and prohibited the breach. The first alert on November 30th, 2013 notified FireEye that malware was detected and it was forwarded to Minneapolis. The alert was overlooked, because according to security experts who have
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This setting, when turned on, insured the company protection from numerous potential malware, because it allowed the system to monitor itself. Target’s security personnel failed to keep this setting enabled due to the company wanting “to have the last decision of ‘what do I do’” (Riley). The company’s pride of wanting to monitor and control everything backfired because the breach showed that some things need human and technological observation. Target had time to realize this because “experts believe Target’s team received hundreds of such alerts on a daily basis, which would have made it tough to have singled out a malicious threat”, thus proving that the security team was overwhelmed and incapable of monitoring all incoming alerts (Finkle). If the option were turned on since the malware was in fact detected, it would’ve been deleted by the first alert in November. “The breach could have been stopped without human intervention”
This setting, when turned on, insured the company protection from numerous potential malware, because it allowed the system to monitor itself. Target’s security personnel failed to keep this setting enabled due to the company wanting “to have the last decision of ‘what do I do’” (Riley). The company’s pride of wanting to monitor and control everything backfired because the breach showed that some things need human and technological observation. Target had time to realize this because “experts believe Target’s team received hundreds of such alerts on a daily basis, which would have made it tough to have singled out a malicious threat”, thus proving that the security team was overwhelmed and incapable of monitoring all incoming alerts (Finkle). If the option were turned on since the malware was in fact detected, it would’ve been deleted by the first alert in November. “The breach could have been stopped without human intervention”