Wine Business Data Hack: Resources Edition

A Technical Issue?

I spent an inordinate amount of time over the July 4th weekend on the Blog that was released on Monday which discussed the pilfering of 250,000 credit card records from eCellars.

I got so focused on understanding this situation I got a little freaked out yesterday when my company laptop didn't work right, my cell phone started freezing and nobody could hear me when I called, my home internet seemed to be operating at 10% of normal, and then the car battery died. WHAT IS GOING ON? .... just a bad day of negative coincidence?

     A Precursor of A Really Bad Day - Are You Prepared with a Plan?

Then .... yesterday United Airlines, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Stock Exchange all closed. WHAT IS GOING ON? Maybe it's an overreaction to worry about a linkage between my cell phone and car battery but when a "technical issue" shuts down the NYSE, something is going on. Turns out the NYSE outage had to do with a required computer software upgrade in a gateway.

I think it really comes down to money. Coming up with advanced technology generally starts when individuals come up with an idea, get proof of concept, find funding and if all goes well a company like Fire Eye takes off and goes public. In the meantime, masses of good ideas never find their way to being a sustainable business.

     State-Sponsored Cyber Threats

On the other hand, Governments like Iran, the U.S., North Korea, Russia, the UK, and China who have lots of money, are making large investments developing general-purpose offensive capabilities that can be used for both war and for civilian law-enforcement.

Public estimates indicate more than 140 states all over the world are working on creating cyber weaponry. Those people who are working on state-sponsored activities also get ideas and the activity creates new ideas that can end up in the commercial world or in dark corners of the world.

     What does that have to do with wine?

With more money than needed, the battle for internet security is being won by people and countries who want to use the information channel for other things other than what we'd normally consider. People are working on discovering vulnerabilities in networks, ways of crashing mission critical industries and networks, disrupting municipal systems ... and yes stealing stuff.

The places that are obviously most likely to suffer from any attack are countries and systems that are the least protected.... And that's where wine comes in.

As noted in the Monday blog, the industry has self-reported that about a third aren't up to speed with basic security protocols as defined by the Payments Industry ("PCI Compliance"). Another third don't even know what PCI Compliance means. That means the eCellars data hack is a harbinger of things to come. We will see more cyber attacks unless the industry really gets hold of this risk.

     Resources -

Understanding the problems is the start of change. For the wine business to grasp what needs to be done, you first have to be educated on threats and solutions. As it turns out, Silicon Valley Bank was planning a Free Live Webinar for its clients on PCI Compliance scheduled for July 21st. But in light of this situation, the organizers have agreed to open it to non-clients as well. Here is the invitation if you have interest:

               Free Live Webinar July 21st 2015

Any merchant that stores, processes, or transmits non-public customer information must comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards. Non-compliance can open your company to costs, liabilities, and fines totaling $50,000 or more.

Silicon Valley Bank and ControlScan put on a free VideoCast on Tuesday, July 21, 2015, to outline the PCI security standards – and what they mean to you.

• Current fraud trends and the latest breach statistics
• Understanding what PCI compliance means – and how it benefits your company in the event of a fraud or breach event
• Best practices on completing the self-assessment questionnaire

 Featured Speakers

• Stephen Ramminger, Senior Business Operations Manager, ControlScan
• Jon Uyterlinde, Product Manager, Merchant Services, Silicon Valley Bank

 

• Please click here to view the replay.
• Please click here to download the presentation slides.

Additional Resources:

• Ten Mistake Companies Make After A Data Breach
• PCI Security Standards Council
• Data Breach: 9 Step Guide for Small Merchants (PDF)
• Example of a Compliance Company as a vendor
• PCI Compliance FAQ's
• SVB Cyber Security Report (Industry Information)
• Visa Compliance Page
• MasterCard Compliance Page
• Discover Compliance Page
• American Express Compliance Page
• Cyber Contingency Plans

Please sign up for the discussion on Payments Security on July 24th, and encourage anyone in your company involved with the payments processes in the Tasting Room and accounting teams to sign up as well. [LINK]

     Post Script

Besides all the technology glitches happening to me, my sewer has backed up. I have guests coming so I called "Same Day Plumbing" and ....you got it, they will be coming tomorrow instead of same day. Maybe I should consult my horoscope or something else?

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