4,238,983 Records Compromised So Far in 2014… and Counting

2014 has been a year of technological advancement, but with any kind of advances such as these, there will always be those who want to steal the work of others. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center and , as of March this year, there have been 204 instances of data breaches this year alone. These affected companies are perfect examples of why web protection is important. SMART Services can provide you with this protection and peace of mind. Here are a few of the more unbelievable breaches, most of which could have been easily avoided.

Poor Security is Bad for Your Health
Late data entry can be catastrophic, and nothing shows this better than the data breaches related to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Over the past few years, more than 169,000 instances of exposed personal information were detected. These include:

• 25,513 at the Department of Medical Assistance Services in Virginia.
• 22,511 at Cook County Health & Hospital System.
• 18,000 at Terrell County Health Department in Georgia.
• 84,000 at St. Francis Patient Care Services in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• 10,024 at Missouri Consolidated Health Care.

Because the data was entered late, these records were compromised and exposed. This all could have been avoided if the entries were more prompt.

Forget the Rapture - Here Comes Tax Fraud
Not even the Catholic Church is safe from hackers. Last month, the Archdiocese of Seattle was the target of a tax-fraud scheme that is being investigated by the United States government. About 90,000 records of employees and volunteers were compromised in the conspiracy, and their social security numbers were used to file fraudulent tax returns.

Selfies – Stealing Phone Numbers Since 2013
The well-known photo application Snapchat was the target of one of the largest heists of the year in January. Hackers took advantage of a security gap that resulted in up to 4.6 million phone numbers and usernames being stolen and downloaded to a website called SnapchatDB.info. Imagine how catastrophic this could have been, and then imagine Snapchat calling the incident "no big deal". Yeah. That's kind of a big deal.

Regardless of how well your company is protected, it could easily wind up just like any one of these unfortunate companies. Contact SMART Services at 586 258-0650 to see how protected you are. Protect yourself now before you become one of the 4,238,983.