On Friday, high end retailer Neiman Marcus confirmed the worst suspicions of its customers: its data had been breached, and an unknown amount of credit and debit card information had been leaked. This comes fast on the heels of a similar incident at Target, which saw the personal info of some 70 million customers fall into the wrong hands.
Investigators are now concerned that there may be a connection between the digital heists, and are now embarking on a fact-finding mission that could ultimately take weeks to finish. They believe that smaller, "trial" runs may have preceded the larger hacks, and are carefully considering all available evidence to determine the identity of the culprits.
Daniel Ingevaldson, the CEO of a cyber-detection firm, believes that many of these bilked cards found their way onto the black market in early January.
"While we can't definitively say what the source of the breach was, the percentage of extremely high-value cards is significantly higher than we see on average. These are cards like the Amex Centurion card — an invite-only card that comes with a $7,500 setup fee and $2,500 annual fee," he said. "While it is hard to determine from a single black market, this would indicate these could come from a high-end source, such as Neiman Marcus."
These high-profile incidents strongly highlight the need for companies to have IT contractor insurance. If hackers are able to compromise businesses as large as Target and Neiman Marcus, a smaller or medium size outfit could likewise be at risk. What's more, these smaller companies don't have the same resources to deal with the potential fallout. By getting an adequate coverage plan, you can ensure that even if the worst happens, you avoid the situation becoming a complete disaster.