The Protection Of Valuable Intellectual Property And Business Information

Even though Target is ranked currently 36 in the fortune 500 companies and have over 1750 stores, they are still very susceptible to being a victim of a cyber attack. In 2013, Target fell victim to a security breach on their system. Roughly around Thanksgiving of 2013, someone had installed malware in Target’s security and payment system enabling the hackers to steal credit card and personal information. “Six months earlier the company began installing a $1.6 million malware detection tool made by the computer security firm FireEye, whose customers also include the CIA and the Pentagon.” (BloombergBusiness) In place was a very effective security system. However, when the attacked happen on November 30, FireEye spotted the hackers and Bangalore (a third party cyber security company hired by Target) that alerted the IT team at corporate office in Minneapolis. There was no response from Target’s Corporate IT team and therefore led to 40 million credit card numbers and 70 million addresses, phone numbers and other personal

Even though Target is ranked currently 36 in the fortune 500 companies and have over 1750 stores, they are still very susceptible to being a victim of a cyber attack. In 2013 Target fell victim to a security breach on their system. Roughly around Thanksgiving of 2013 someone had installed malware in Target’s security and payment system enabling the hackers to steal credit card and personal information. “Six months earlier the company began installing a $1.6 million malware detection tool made by the computer security firm FireEye, whose customers also include the CIA and the Pentagon.” (BloombergBusiness) In place was a very effective security system, but when the attacked happen on November 30, FireEye spotted the hackers and Bangalore, a third party cyber security company hired by Target alerted the IT team at corporate office in Minneapolis. There was no response from Target’s Corporate IT team and therefore led to the 40 million credit card numbers and 70 million addresses, phone numbers

Even after the attack, when the company did not know whether the customer information, which included credit card information, the company had no intention to announce the security breach to the public. This can be detrimental to the company if customers became

During the last Christmas season, Target announced that their data security was breached. According to David Lazarus in Los Angeles Times, Target stated that roughly 110 million customers’ information was illegally taken from their database. The information included their credit/debit card info, phone numbers, and email addresses. Target is one of the most popular grocery stores in the U.S.; they have a substantial amount of consumers. Because of this incident, consumers' trusts for the store have been decreasing. Worrying about losing its customers, the company offered a free year of credit monitoring and identity-theft protection, so the customers will feel more secure. Not only Target, some other large retailers also faced the same issues. They want their customers to trust that the companies can protect private data. However, should we not worry? Data breaches have been going on for about a decade, but we have not seriously thought about the issue. In order to protect people’s privacy, the federal government should make new laws concerning companies’ handling of customer information.

In a public statement regarding employee downsizing, they stated: "Target continually assesses our operating model to ensure we are well-positioned to adapt to changing business needs. ... We believe these decisions, while difficult, are the right actions as we continue to focus on transforming our business. We will continue to invest in key business areas to strengthen our ability to compete and thrive well into the future," Hammerand et al., 2014). Although they also stated that the downsizing is in no way a result from the data breach, it can be considered an indirect result of transforming the business, which was a result of the breach. It is known that Target informed their employees of the downsizing pursuant to media publicity, however it does not state which form of communication was used. I have created a sample e-mail notification to employees regarding this issue (See Target Downsizing Email). The statement above was my inspiration, as it describes the corporation’s views on the issue, although vaguely. I would have explained in more detail the reasons and steps taken for the layoffs so that the employees can understand the rationale behind the move.

Target and its larger grocery-carrying incarnation, SuperTarget, have carved out a niche by offering more upscale, fashion-forward merchandise than rivals Wal-Mart and Kmart (Target, 2014). Target has had its share of problems in the past, one of the most infamous being the credit card breach in late 2013. Target informed the public that at least 40 million of its customer’s debit and credit card information had been hacked. In spite of the security breach Target is well known philanthropic actives.

Steinhafel's comments to CNBC appear to be more of a public relations account of the timeline rather than words coming from Target's security team, which is not surprising. Depending on how many systems were compromised, remediating the malware infections across many systems in many locations across the country would likely be a significant

The hackers were able to update the malware two times to strengthen their malware in order to extract data efficiently. The hackers managed to stay in Target’s network and move from one part of the network to the other without detection. The final stage of APT kill chain was data extraction. Data extraction in Targets case was done on many levels. First, the hackers were able to copy credit card credentials of previous shoppers. Secondly, hackers were able to steal phone numbers and addresses from Target’s reward program. Finally, hackers were able to steal credit card information as costumers were using the POS to finalize their shopping. 2. What were the significant breakdowns in Target’s security operations that may have intensified the magnitude and impact of the breach?There were many downfalls of Target’s security system that lead to the significance of the attack.i.Target did not perform security checks with the vendors to examine their security protocols such as using a free malware detection software that was not suitable for business

This report examines Target Corporation’s performance in a detailed strategic audit. The audit includes an external, internal and strategic analysis as well as a recommended course of action. The findings of the audit recommend a robust on-line/mobile presence to complement in-store sales, and to increase future earnings to remain competitive by building upon physical assets, brand value and logistical capabilities.

Target a large retail corporation that operates over 1,700 stores across the United States. They also operate as an online retailer at target.com. In 2012 the retailer earned more than $73 billion dollars in revenue and grew their sales by 5.1% from the previous year. Looking at the revenue and sales growth rate it is hard to fathom that more money could not be spent to ensure that consumer data is protected as much as possible. As information security specialists one of the worst things that can happen is our network gets infiltrated and customer information is stolen. On December 19, 2013 Target released a statement stating that they have had an information

Target has not disclosed much detail around the breach due to liability and legal issues but some information is available due to a leaked internal corporate report. The report included information by Verizon which was hired by Target to probe its networks for weaknesses days after the breach was

In December 2013, Target was attacked by a cyber-attack due to a data breach. Target is a widely known retailer that has millions of consumers flocking every day to the retailer to partake in the stores wonders. The Target Data Breach is now known as the largest data breach/attack surpassing the TJX data breach in 2007. “The second-biggest attack struck TJX Companies, the parent company of TJMaxx and Marshall’s, which said in 2007 that about 45 million credit cards and debit cards had been compromised.” (Timberg, Yang, & Tsukayama, 2013) The data breach occurred to Target was a strong swift kick to the guts to not only the retailer/corporation, but to employees and consumers. The December 2013 data breach, exposed Target in a way that many

The advice I would give to senior management as a Target consultant would be to find out who the persons were that¬¬¬¬ were initially aware of the security hack and retrain them in the proper procedure of reporting what they found but failed to report. Whether the individual or individuals were new employees or whether they had been with the company for a reasonable amount of time, they should be counseled and instructed in a way that would present different results if this opportunity ever arose again. I would advise the executives to always be honest with the consumers. It is because of them and their faithfulness to doing business with our company. They are the reason that Target has been doing business for over 50 years. I would encourage

As technology grows and information has become a critical asset companies currently are devoted their resource and money to protect their data as important as their finance and human resource assets.

Intellectual property is critical to many companies in order to foster innovation and boosting their revenues. Many industries rely on the protection of patents, trademarks and copyrights as they are valuable assets for companies’ success. By protecting intellectual properties, it ensures that the original owner reaps full benefits from his/her ideas, features, products and creations.