Well, a better headline might read “another warning for business”. Here’s an analysis piece of the Cotton Trader’s credit card breach story that broke last week.
From IT PRO:
In many ways, Cotton Traders is an ordinary, mid-sized British business. The company, which is based in Altringham, Cheshire, was founded in 1987 by two former England rugby captains, Fran Cotton and Steve Smith. Today, Cotton Traders operates a mail-order business, including online sales, a wholesale operation and a network of stores. Its turnover now exceeds £50 million. It is not involved in high finance or technology; nor is it an e-commerce pure play. It is typical of thousands of companies around the country that have used the internet to expand their sales, with some success. Its website is clean, simple and easy to use, and is designed to appeal to the mass market.
So if Cotton Traders could fall victim to an online criminal gang, so could almost any business that trades on the net. The security breach took place in January, although it was only confirmed by the company earlier this month, and attracted media attention over the last few days.
The company maintains that the data was encrypted. for their sakes I hope that is was. I’m a little surprised of how long it took for the company to disclose this breach. It apparently took place in January and it only now has come to light.
Read on for the full article.
