It was recently announced that TIO Networks, owned by PayPal was breached on November 10th exposing 1.6 million customer's personal information. In this modern age, companies have to protect not only themselves but also all their subsidiaries. It is a lot of responsibility. Luckily, PayPal's data was not affected, because they were not using the TIO system of processing bill payments. It is unknown what personal information was stolen, but credit cards and social security numbers were said to be compromised (Kovacs, 2017). TIO suspended its operation on November 10th because of security vulnerabilities in their system, but their parent company, PayPal did not issue a statement until December 1st. Since TIO is not a well-known company, PayPal should have announced the news earlier so it could bring attention to consumers who might be affected.
If you are a PayPal customer, it seems that you are safe. None of the personal data on the PayPal network were compromised. However, if your password has not changed for a while, it’s time to change it. Customers of TIO Networks who were infected by the breach will be contacted by email. They will receive a free year subscription to Experian. If their social security were compromised, they would receive two years of service (TIO Networks, 2017). The notification of the free service is just a notification, nothing more. Registering for the service is essential. Experian will provide a free credit report, active monitoring for fraud/identity theft, and theft insurance. It’s a great deal, but action needs to be taken to join the service. Don’t put it off for another day.
It must be frustrating for a publicly traded company such as TIO to have their daily business indefinitely suspended, all because of a security compromise. Today, it's more important than ever to manage security data effectively.
References
Kovacs, E. (2017, Dec 4). Breach at PayPal Subsidiary Affects 1.6 Million Customers. Retrieved from http://www.securityweek.com/breach-paypal-subsidiary-affects-16-million-customers
TIO Networks. (2017, Dec 1). TIO Networks Provides Update on Suspension of Operations. Retrieved from http://tio.com/#consumerfaq
Zacks Equity Research. (2017, Dec 4). PayPal's Newly Acquired Unit TIO Networks Suffers Data Breach. Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paypal-apos-newly-acquired-unit-150303417.html
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