HSBC: One of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, HSBC is based in London and has offices in 80 countries.
Risk to Small Business: Severe: The data compromised in this breach can be very harmful to an individual if in the wrong hands, and customers know this. Customers will second-guess their choice of a bank if their information is compromised and those thinking about setting up an account could very well look elsewhere.
Individual Risk: Severe: Those who are affected by this breach are at a higher risk of fraud and should take advantage of the identity monitoring program that HSBC offered to victims.
Customers Impacted: Undisclosed at this time.
How it Could Affect You:One of the most important things a financial institution has is the trust of its business partners and customers. No one wants to hand over their money to someone they don’t trust. Any organization loses face when experiencing a breach but when a financial institution fails to secure account numbers, transaction history, and balances, customers will NOT forget it.
In Other News:
Financial Fail
A financial breach of epic proportion has occurred in Pakistan, with hackers making off with data from almost 8,000 bank account holders from 10 different banks. The government's cybercrime division is on the case, and hopefully making progress… although it is too early to tell. The data is being sold on the Dark Web at $100 to $160 a record. With 11,000 records found so far, that is a pretty penny.
