In the News
Security breaches of user account data continue to plague the international market. In Ticketmaster says an unknown third party stole some customers’ personal data, Shannon Liao discusses harmful software on certain Ticketmaster customer service products that took user data and sent it to external parties. Liao explains that the breach did not affect any customers in North America. Liao states that the affected customers were contacted by Ticketmaster and recommended to reset their passwords.
Our Take
It’s easy to forget how many companies and products are involved in delivering a single service offering to the general public. Even when a company’s own code and procedures are security-minded, if their relationships with third parties are not airtight, customer information can leak just the same. Ticketmaster is one in a line of breaches that were caused by too much trust in the security of a partner’s code or equipment; but, as with the HVAC vendor that contributed to the Target data breach, it isn’t the partner whose name will be remembered or whose reputation will suffer.
Recommendations
There isn’t much you can do to help companies assess the risk of third parties, but you CAN minimize the risk to yourself by following a few steps:
- Give the bare minimum amount of personal information necessary to procure a service
- Take advantage of online payment utilities such as PayPal in order to decrease the number of companies that have direct access to your financial information
- Track your finances closely to spot unfamiliar activity before it becomes harmful
- Always create a unique and strong password for each account, and use multi-factor authentication when possible
- Stay up to date on current security breaches to see if you have been impacted