Security in Networking
Data breaches have become common in today’s business environment as organizations are increasingly vulnerable to a data breach or cyber-attack. Jain & Ropple (2018) state that many companies or institutions face huge challenges in successful management of cyber risk despite increased expenditures on their network security. Even though some industry standards have been established, they are relatively vague. Additionally, existing solutions for safeguarding companies or institutions against data breaches are not entirely effective. Sophisticated criminal problems have compounded or worsened organizations’ vulnerabilities to data breaches or cyber-attacks. This paper examines the recent data breach at Marriot International, a large American hotel chain. The evaluation discusses the existing telecommunication and network practices at the time, what contributed to the breach, and a plan of action to alleviate these factors.

Marriot’s Data Breach and Existing Network Practices

Marriot International suffered what is regarded as the biggest corporate data breaches in history. The data breach resulted in the loss of data on 500 million guests including credit card and passport information (Brewster, 2018). The company admitted that the data breach occurred on its Starwood guest reservation database. In addition to credit card and passport information, the hackers also obtained data on mailing and email addresses, phone number, payment card numbers and their expiration dates. The stolen data relates to reservations made at Starwood guest database between 2014 and September 2018. This essentially means that hackers had unauthorized access to the hotels’ network for a period of four years. In its initial report, the company states that the exact data taken by the hackers remains unknown and subject to the findings of ongoing investigations into the data breach. The company seeks to establish what was exactly stolen by these hackers through its dedicated framework for helping affected guests. In this regard, Marriot established a series of steps to assist guests affected by the data breach including establishing a dedicated website and call center. The company is also sending email notifications to affected guests and providing them one-year free subscription to Webwatcher data security software.

One of the existing telecommunication and network infrastructure at the time of the attack is encryption of credit card numbers using an algorithm known as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-128). In addition, access to payment card numbers and other guest information requires decrypting these numbers. Marriott reported the possibility that hackers had taken these telecommunication and network practices that helped protect its database. Therefore, Marriott utilized encryption of customer data and the need for decryption as a telecommunication and network practice that would protect its database from unauthorized access.

Factors Resulting in the Security Breach

Sivalingam (2018) reports that the security breach at Marriott can be traced back to 2014 prior to the merger between the company and Starwood hotels. The breach emerged at...…potentially detrimental activities and support mitigation decisions (Stevenson et al., 2019). A risk-focused monitoring function in the network would enhance its security and enable the company to advance its business strategies in a free and safe manner. Secondly, the company should utilize artificial intelligence in its network to accurately and effectively detect genuine cyber-attacks in real time. Artificial intelligence will play a critical role in this process since it’s impossible to manually detect malicious activity, especially when handling huge volumes of data (Atkinson, 2019). Third, Marriott should consider upgrading its login protocols by using stronger authentication tools such as security keys, biometrics or one-time codes since it would help the company to stay ahead of the hackers.

In conclusion, data breaches have become common in the modern business environment due to rapid technological advancements. Hackers and other cyber criminals are continually capitalizing on these technological advancements to develop sophisticated measures for conducting their activities. Marriott is an example of a company that has recently experienced a data breach that resulted in the loss of data of 500 million customers. Hackers exploited the lack of instant detection and alerts in the company’s network to launch an attack that allowed them to have unauthorized access to customer data for four years. In this regard, Marriott needs to enhance its network security infrastructure through adopting best practices that are in line with industry standards.

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