Data Breaches Can’t Be Stopped, But Maybe Slowed

Large breaches in data are becoming nearly commonplace in an American age where so much information is being transferred with the swipe of a card. It is nothing new for businesses who store this data, who are at risk of breaches daily. A recent breach affected over 143 million Americans, putting their Social Security numbers, addresses and more at risk. As these breaches begin to come more often, security turns to a tough response: slowing down these attacks, rather than trying to stop them altogether.

Shiu-Kai Chin is a Professor at Syracuse, who focuses his research on computer security. In his mind, business should look at this breach issue in a very simple light. “People who run businesses don’t want to think about the cost of information audits,” he says. “But if they just imagined that every packet of information was a hundred dollar bill, all of a sudden they would start to think about who touches that money and should they be touching that money? They would want to set up the system properly—so you only give people enough access to do their jobs and no more.”