Perhaps it’s the books I’ve been reading or the television shows I’ve been watching, but my mind can’t seem to stop linking the recent barrage of cybersecurity attacks with those ne’er-do-wells that plagued the Caribbean from 1650 through the 1730s.  Yes, I’m talking about pirates, but not the Errol Flynn/Johnny Depp-style buccaneer, more the Edward Teach model, the notorious “Blackbeard.”  One of Blackbeard’s most infamous successes occurred in Charleston, South Carolina in 1718 when he blockaded Charleston Harbor and held some of the town’s leading citizens for ransom.  Rather than demand the typical jewels and money, Blackbeard wanted something else – he held both the town and its people ransom for £300 of medicine.  After a circus of errors conspired to delay the ransom payment, Blackbeard received his medicine and released both the harbor and his prisoners – minus, of course, much of their finer possessions (they were pirates after all) – and sailed off into legend.  So what does this jaunt down piracy lane have to do with cybersecurity and federal contractors?  Simple, sometimes we don’t know what’s really of value and how that value can be used.  Case in point – the OPM breach.
Continue Reading Ransoming Sensitive Personal Information: Will OPM’s Data Breach Trigger Your Insider Threats?