Steward Bret Privacy Ethics
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School
Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion *
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Course
ADM 310-01
Subject
Philosophy
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
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4
Uploaded by ChancellorGerbilPerson1010
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Privacy Ethics
Bret L Steward
Indiana Wesleyan University ADM-310: Technology for Managers
Instructor Ryan Falquist
February 26, 2024
Privacy Ethics
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a.
How was the data breach unethical?
LoanDepot fell victim to an attack where 17 million users were affected. Millions of users’ personal information was the result of a ransomware attack where the attackers demanded payment to restore encrypted data. The threat could have resulted in data loss, reputational damage, as well as financial losses. Essentially the attackers gained access to the company system where the data was housed, resulting in the customer’s inability to access the website to pay their loans. The unethical act of these criminals encrypted personal information just to leverage financial gain.
b.
What was the financial impact of the breach?
The breach of LoanDepot cost the company $25 million, resulting in shutting down system to implement security measures to protect the company and all customer data. Automated processing of payments also resulted in delays, as transactions needed to be reviewed and validated to
ensure no additional risk to the company. Overall, the breach had a profound impact on the company as the website posted the following notice, as shown in the article (Whittaker, 2024), “LoanDepot is experiencing a cyber incident that prompted us to take certain system offline while we respond to the matter. We are working diligently to return
to normal business operations as soon as possible. Recurring automatic payments are processing as expected, but there may be a temporary delay in viewing the posted payment in your payment history.” As attacks
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become more prevalent, confidence in securing personal information becomes a larger concern. c.
Explain if you have been impacted by a stolen identity or data breach and how.
I had an information breach that resulted from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The data breach consisted of my personal information such as social security number as well as other identifiable information. The breach was devised by gaining information while making payment for healthcare services. Luckily the data breach did not result in financial attempts to purchase items fraudulently using my information. d.
What positive steps can a company take when a data breach
happens?
Companies can take several positive steps to secure a breach once it is
identified. The first step is to identify what the system vulnerability is and determine the best way to secure the breach. Next is to require all personnel to change system access passwords. Subsequently, the IT department should determine if any system protocols were broken and address the employee immediately. Any new system procedures should be disseminated to all employees immediately after.
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Privacy Ethics
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References
Fung, M. K. (2017). Fraudulent Financial Reporting and Technological Ca-
pability in the Information Technology Sector: A Resource-Based Perspective.
Journal of Business Ethics
,
156
(2), 577–589. https://
doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3605-4
Labrecque, L. I., Markos, E., Swani, K., & Peña, P. (2021). When data secu-
rity goes wrong: Examining the impact of stress, social contract vio-
lation, and data type on consumer coping responses following a data breach.
Journal of Business Research
,
135
, 559–571. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.06.054
Reed, C. (2022, February 4).
The Most Recent Data Breaches – as of 2022
. Firewall Times. https://firewalltimes.com/recent-data-
breaches/
Whittaker, Z. (2024, January 8).
LoanDepot hit by suspected ransomware attack
. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/08/loandepot-
outage-suspected-ransomware-attack/
Whittaker, Z. (2024, February 26).
LoanDepot says about 17 million cus-
tomers had personal data and Social Security numbers stolen during
cyberattack
. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/26/loan-
depot-millions-sensitive-personal-data-ransomware/