Privacy and Security Breaces at Acxiom

hiding and Security Breaches at Acxiom Case Study Chapter 4 Privacy and Security Breaches at Acxiom Case Study Chapter 4 Acxiom mogul be the most important organization that most of us select neer heard of. They are the worlds largest processor of consumer data, collecting and analyzing more than a billion records a day (Bigdoli, 2012). Acxiom was founded in 1969, and its headquarters is rigid in Little Rock, Arkansas (About Acxiom, 2013). Its customers include nine of the countrys top ecstasy credit-card issuers, as well as nearly all the major sell banks, insurers, and auto work uprs (Behar, 2012).Unfortunately, Acxiom has been faced with some breaches of security that have led the participation make some important security changes/upgrades. In 2003, Daniel freshwater bass, a 24 division old computer-systems administrator was found to have stolen the data of millions of individuals from Acxioms databases. He spent two years collecting this entropy and stored it on sig n up discs (Behar, 2004). He broke into their system by simply cracking passwords (Behar, 2004). Bass was not the only hacker to crack Acxiom however.While authorities were investigating Bass, they last discovered an additional hacker group from Boca Raton, Florida, who had cracked the passwords for the same master of ceremonies that Bass had gotten into as well. While they accessed information for millions of people it did not calculate that either hacking incident resulted in the defrauding of any of the individuals whose data was stolen (Behar, 2012). Acxiom definitely inevitable to do something to beef up their security measures and protect their customers data.They first hire a head word security officer, which had not been a position until these incidents. The chief security officer instituted mandatory encryptions, as well as operative to prevent cybercrimes. Acxiom additionally began to conduct security audits (both conducted from inside and outside firms) to demonst rate for weaknesses in security. As far as privacy is concerned, Acxiom is considered to have maven of the most stringent privacy policies t present are. You can read it here http//www. acxiom. com/about-acxiom/privacy/.They had a privacy officer long before they had a security officer. In terms of privacy, we are left questioning whether the government activity should have access to the information that is collected. I believe that the government should have only limited access. Acxiom was able to help the government with the investigation of the terrorist 9/11 attacks (Behar, 2004). The government should only be granted access to information relevant to important cases, not just have free sovereignty to interpret all of the data any way they see fit.Other organizations office also feel they need access to this private data for security reasons. While I do not see how this could ever happen, the realizable organizations that might feel they need access to such information might be school districts, private security firms, real estate professionals (especially broad(prenominal) end), colleges and universities. While safety is an important issue at all of these places (and most others), having access to this sort of information does not guarantee safety, but in fact places unfair targets on many harmless individuals.References About Acxiom. (2013). Retrieved from Acxiom http//www. acxiom. com/overview/ Behar, R. (2004, February 23). neer Heard Of Acxiom? Chances Are Its Heard Of You. How a little-known Little Rock companythe worlds largest processor of consumer datafound itself at the center of a precise big national security debate. Retrieved from CNN Money http//money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/02/23/362182/index. htm Bidgoli, H. (2012). MIS2. capital of Massachusetts Cengage Learning.