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Personal data collection organisations face further threats following census hacking, says security expert

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

June 21, 2011 | 3 min read

There is likely to be an increase in coordinated hacking attacks against personal collection organisations, says an online security expert following the claims by hackers to have intercepted the results of this year’s census.

As a result of LulzSec’s claims to have been stolen the whole 2011 census which is aimed to post online, leading to one arrest at the time of writing, Catalin Cosoi, head of the online threats lab at security provider BitDefender claims that the threat of hacking to personal data companies will only increase as a result.

“Although the exact purpose of this type of (unconfirmed) attack is still unclear, it appears that hackers have developed a special interest in targeting organisations that hold sizeable pools of consumer data. In the past 6 months, we have observed an increased likelihood of coordinated attacks against organisations responsible for collecting and processing personal data. This phenomenon is likely to continue for some time to come and it is possible that the current stage of data gathering could be sowing the seeds for more targeted attacks in the future,” said Cosoi.

“It is difficult to determine the exact techniques employed in a security breach as this would require the organisation to disclose details on how the breach came about (which could often have been avoided). There are some general scenarios, however, that employees should be aware of in order to avoid making their organisation prone to an attack. Cybercriminals will often target an individual with little knowledge of data security but who has access to an organisation’s core network resources. Going forward, organisations must define crystal clear work procedures where confidential information can only be accessed on a need to know basis.”

Claims over the cyber attack are yet to be confirmed by investigating police at the time of writing.

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