It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~ Charles Dickens 1859 When I started the research for this, it is intended to be a technical-ish discussion on two breaches that have recently occurred. One is the largest in history (at the time of the writing) an the other is a little known, but to a handful of folks. It is based on what we observed, both companies’ reactions to what happened, and what we were able to glean from what happened. Marriot: 500 Million records breached from a problem they bought. Literally, Arizona Iced Tea: Millions of dollars in sales lost from a ransomware attack. Each company survived their respective incidents, but how each company handled the incidents, themselves, and their clients speaks volumes on wisdom and foolishness.
