Based upon Chapter 6: Ethics & Information Security

Information Security
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In 2013, before Thanksgiving, an unnamed hacker installed malware in the security and payment system of Target Corporation, one of the largest and most famous retailers in the United States. He aimed to steal customers’ credit card numbers and personal details. When the Christmas gifts were scanned and bagged, the cashier asked for swipes. Right then, the malware got activated, captured the credit card numbers of shoppers, and stored it on an unknown server. Target Corporation had to face a lot of criticism. Later on, the company paid up to $1.5 million to a security agency FireEye for an anti-malware tool (Baltzan & Phillips, 2009).
What can organizations do to protect themselves from hackers?
From what happened with Target Corporation, it is evident that the companies need to protect themselves from hackers. With the passage of time, the attackers have developed new techniques and ways to steal private data, credit card numbers and PayPal IDs of online buyers. It is the responsibility of companies to provide their customers with utmost protection and safety (Baltzan & Phillips, 2009). For this, they can opt for the following measures:
1. Use strong passwords:
All online portals provide their clients with usernames and passwords. Implementing strong passwords is what the organizations need to do to strengthen their security. They should not only ask their clients to use strong passwords, but also protect their data in a centralized, password-protected system. The passwords should be combination of sophisticated characters and numbers (Usher, 2016).
2. Program updates are necessary
Target Corporation was targeted easily because the company hadn’t updated its website content and system for months. It is essential for the organizations to update their systems on a regular basis, especially when they are deali...