Share a recent or current event in which a business or government failed to protect consumers

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• Share a recent or current event in which a business or government failed to protect consumers. What were the failures? Who were the victims? What can or could be done to prevent such failures in the future? Do your findings change the way you will support the company in the future?
• You are encouraged to share resources that introduce or illuminate the event.
• Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates' posts.

Please respond to this post.

Tish Smiley

RE: Week 6 Discussion

Good morning,

From the multiple choices of data breaches in 2021 alone, I chose the California DMV data breach that happened in February 2021. The contractor California use for billing was attacked with ransomware, which lead to the data breach. Approximately 38 million records were compromised but since some people own multiple vehicles, less people were affected. According to the article I read, the breach included at least 20 months worth of records, dating back to August 2019. The information obtained from the hackers include drivers names, addresses, license plate numbers, and vehicle identification numbers (VIN). Per the the DMV, social security numbers, immigration status, and date of births were not included. The DMV has since stopped sharing information with the company and have gotten the FBI involved in the investigation.

Since the California DMV was previously hacked in 2019, I believe the biggest failure on their part was ensuring any third party company they used was protected. I realize there isn't a surefire way to prevent data breaches but for the DMV to be hacked twice in such a short period of time leads me to believe they do not take the protection of their customers information very seriously. Maybe instead of outsourcing their billing department, they should create jobs by internalizing it. At minimum, they should do a better job of screening all third party companies to ensure they have the technology to prevent any other breaches. The unfortunate thing about this breach is that people have to do business with the DMV. If you own a vehicle and want to drive it in the state of California, you have to register it through the DMV. Unlike other businesses, you can choose to discontinue business with them if your information is leaked. That's not an option with government agencies such as the DMV.