slides: Ten Recent Data Breaches In Oregon

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Joanna Evoniuk, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Over the last four years, hackers have breached over 870,000 records in Oregon alone, while theft and human error have placed even more records at risk. Experts worry the problem will persist, as hackers have greater resources than most security firms, and some companies do not take proper security measures.

Between 2012 and 2015 there were 31 data breaches that affected nine individuals or more, according to a national database by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer rights advocacy.

Slideshow Below: 10 Recent Data Breaches In Oregon

As more information becomes available online, and hackers become more powerful, private information is falling more often into the wrong hands, according to Beth Givens, executive director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

“These days, consumers need to assume their personal data is out of control, given the large number of breaches every day,” Givens said. “In the hands of criminals, it can lead to identity theft.”

Last week Anthem Insurance, the second largest insurance company in the U.S., had a database breached, placing the private information of over 800 million people in the hands of the hackers. Hackers stole information on Social Security numbers, addresses, employment data, and birthdays.

Oregon Data Breaches

On Oct. 2014, hackers broke into a database at Oregon Employment Department containing the personal of thousands of Oregonians. At least 820,000 Social Security numbers or other personal information were compromised.

Andrea Fogue, a spokes person with the department, said that so far there is no indication any of the information has been used, and there is an ongoing investigation by the Oregon State Police and FBI.

“We are constantly working to have the highest level of security possible. We were doing it before and we’re doing it now,” Fogue said. “We wanted to be as responsive as possible."

While a wide range of Oregon companies and organizations have been target by hackers, medical organization where hit the most. At least 10 experienced data breaches since 2012.

Hackers have become a serious force to be reckoned with in recent years, according to Dave Johnson, President and CEO of the IT and security company Netropole, Inc. in Portland.

“[Hacker’s] numbers and sophistication of power exploded in the last five years,” Johnson said. “There’s huge money behind it.”

Hackers today don’t always target the biggest companies and public agencies, according to Johnson. Smaller companies often have less security, making them easy targets.

Protecting Data

Johnson said his company mostly deals with breaches that are preventable, such as an employee clicking on phishing email—one that included links to malware and attempts to gather sensitive information. While some are harmless, others can seriously expose companies and their information or data.

Mingwei Zhang, a research assistant at the Network Security Lab at the University of Oregon, said society has made a choice by putting information online to trust companies that store it.

Many consumers take security upon themselves, Zhang said, taking precautions such as two or three step verification. For example, when logging in to access sensitive information, verify with a cell phone and a computer that it is the correct user, Zhang said.

However, Givens said intuitions should do a better job of protecting against breaches.

“I lay the whole issue at the feet of financial instructions, for not using multi-factor identification, and not spending money on security,” Givens said. “We entrust our information with all of these companies.”

Johnson said that over the next few years, everyone’s data will shift away from local networks to cloud storage devices. Although this will take pressure off protecting data storage for smaller companies, it will mean a bigger fallout if large corporations are breached.

“Larger providers are going to have to have a really sound strategy and make sure they are taking care of everything,” Johnson said.