The recent data breach at fundraising technology provider BlackBaud is an object lesson in how third party risks can compromise cybersecurity and cause huge problems for other businesses, leading to a cascade effect that keeps the damage rolling.
Initially, BlackBaud obfuscated the details it released about the breach, including insinuating that the initial ransomware attack was unsuccessful. Two weeks ago, we reported on the real story of that breach, noting that BlackBaud had actually paid the ransom demanded for the encryption key. The company also claimed that very little user data was stolen and the breach would only impact a small subset of its users.
Once again, that wasn’t necessarily the case. As the ripple effect of the initial breach became more apparent,large universities and institutions around the world began disclosing that information including details about their alumni, donors, and fundraising efforts had been compromised in the BlackBaud breach, Including The National Trust (UK), Texas Tech, the University of York, the University of South Wales, Aberystwyth University, and UK Charities including The Wallich, Crisis, Sue Ryder, and Young Minds.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told the BBC that 125 organizations had reported that they were impacted by the event, including dozens of universities and 33 charities. Internationally, the breach is expected to impact many more universities, trusts, museums, schools, churches, and food banks.
So how can you protect your clients’ sensitive data and systems from breach danger or exposure because of third party service providers? We’ll be coming out with a new book addressing that problem soon, but here’s a sneak peek at our advice – and you can put this into practice right now.
Start employing single sign-on (SSO) and multifactor authentication (MFA) immediately. Those two tools combines add a strong barrier between cybercriminals and sensitive data and systems by giving IT staffers more control. MFA is often the star of the show when considering secure identity and access management solutions, but single-sign-on is the unsung hero.
SSO allows for the creation of a unique Launchpad for every user, giving IT staff the opportunity to control each user’s access to applications and data with one action. If someone’s account is compromised, instead of figuring out what they ad access to and turning each one off individually, IT staffers can cauterize the bleeding quickly by simply deactivating that user’s Launchpad, eliminating their access to everything.
Get these essential protections and more with our freshly updated secure identity and access management solution Passly. Not only do you get MFA and SSO, Passly also includes easy remote management tools, secure password storage vaults, and seamless integration with over 1,000 commonly used business applications. Start using Passly now to provide an essential upgrade in protection from unexpected threats that won’t break the bank – and gets to work securing data and systems from Day 1.
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