IT managers find that security breaches can cost your job

David Bicknell

about 1 year ago 0 Comments

One of the problems with growing amounts of data within organisations is that when any of that data goes missing, there are serious implications for IT managers. And particularly when it's personal data.

In the US state of Utah, a breach of health and personal data within the Utah Department of Health has cost the state’s CIO, Steve Fletcher his job, Government Technology has reported.

Fletcher’s departure was part of the Utah Governor Gary Herbert’s response to the breach, which was discovered on April 2 and is believed to have compromised 280,000 Social Security numbers and other personal information of an estimated 500,000 people, including names, addresses, birth dates and some details contained in patient health records.

The state has now instituted a comprehensive security audit of the state’s technology systems and created a new position of "health data security ombudsman. “

The data breach is reported to have occurred on March 30, and was made possible by a weak password that allowed hackers to break through the department’s security and steal the personal information of as many as 780,000 people.

The article reports that the breach is an example of a challenge that CIOs face: if you ask for security funding before anything has happened, the request might get rejected. Wait too long until a breach occurs, and you could lose your job. 

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