Cybercrime: Security Breach at TJX

Running head: SECURITY BREACH AT TJX
SECURITY BREACH AT TJX

Security Breach at TJX
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Cyber crooks involves illegal intrusion to a computer system and getting access or altering the computer files. Retail industry is faced with great vulnerability to attacks and hacking. TJX fell a victim of ingenious cyber crooks. This was due to its reliance on weak encryption technology that put the confidentiality and privacy of its customer’s personal information at risk. TJX being one of the largest off-price stores, had to employ internal information systems that are critical to maintaining margins and market competitiveness. These systems relies on IT networks in order to connect with people and information along the value chain as well as enhancing retailer’s productivity (Goel & Shawky, 2009). The use of IT networks that are supported by the internet provides the source of vulnerability to hacking and other attacks.
In addition, TJX encountered the challenge of computer intrusion in which there was presence of suspicious software as well as altered computer files and mixed-up data. As a result of this intrusion, on February 21, 2007, TJX publicly announced it and expanded their forensic investigation (Xu et al, 2008). The breach negatively affected millions of records. The stolen customer data was used to make several purchases without customer’s knowledge. This is evident considering the case of a customer who complained of the risk to his personal information after noticing five consecutive ATM withdrawals from his account yet he was unware of such happenings.
In conclusion, smart and profitable retail organizations like TJX will at times find themselves in such situations. This is because they are faced with multiple security vulnerabilities and computer intrusion that include: wireless attacks, encryption, and USB drives at in-store kiosks, compliance as well as processing logs and auditing practices. For instance in the case of TJX, it was evident that it did not meet nine of the dozen requirements covering encryption, access controls and firewalls. In the opinion of auditors, TJX systems had three key problems: absence of network monitoring, absence of logs and the presence of unencrypted data stored on the system. All these vulnerabilities will contribute towards cyber crooks experienced by retail organizations (Goel & Shawky, 2009). Therefore, retail industry should look at IT security as a business issue but not as a technology issue in order to prevent losses they could suffer as a result of breaches of customer privacy which could lead to loss of consumer confidence among other concerns.

References
Xu, W., Grant, G., Nguyen, H., & Dai, X. (2008). Security Breach: The Case of TJX Companies, Inc. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 23(1), 31.
Goel, S., & Shawky, H. A. (2009). Estimating the market impact of security breach announcements on firm values. Information & Management, 46(7), 404-410.