SC Department of Revenue cyber attack exposes 3.6 million social security numbers

A data breech due to a cyber attack on a South Carolina Department of Revenue web server has exposed a potential 3.6 million SC social security numbers and approximately 387,000 debit card numbers, however, the official report indicates that only a small portion of the card numbers were not encrypted.

You can read about the attack timeline and response here and the WSPA news article here.

If the State’s server can be exploited, what about you?

Do you host data on your company server and feel it is totally safe?

For instance, you have a Microsoft Exchange Server, which resides behind a firewall, and it does not host anything but email, so you feel it is safe?

Not so fast – An Exchange Server might be behind a firewall, but is that firewall up to date? It might be so old that the latest firmware and software cannot even be applied to it. More importantly, if your Exchange Server does not have all the latest patches to it, it might be vulnerable to attack, even though a firewall is present.

A large number of servers at businesses go unpatched, and unprotected, yet are exposed to the internet. It might be an FTP server, a web server, SQL database server, or Remote Desktop server.  They all require updates, patches and evaluation, to assure their continued security.

Should you have a question about the status of your Greenville or Upstate network’s security, please call us at 864-990-4748 and arrange for a consultation. We specialize in small and medium business networks, servers and computers and would be happy to work with you to discover what can be done to protect your business.  We’re also partners with some of the most respected security industry leaders, such as Cisco, Symantec, Trend Micro, WatchGuard, SonicWALL, and more!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *