Page 10 - Software Engineer

failures. Engineering consultants like Greg A. Lynch contend that
if the company had had software engineers on staff to encrypt
code and a systems engineer to monitor what was going on, the
breach could have been avoided. “This is a preventable crime,” 10
Lynch says.
Another large and well-known security breach involved Target
stores. After a hacking incident in 2013, the company said as
many as 110 million people may have
“A really nice thing about had personal information, such as e-
software engineering is mail addresses and phone numbers,
that if you have a good stolen. At least 40 million credit cards
idea, you can implement were also compromised, which required
it right away.” 12
Target to reimburse banks $39.4 million
— Xiaoyun Yang, software for fraudulent charges and other costs
engineer associated with replacing cards that
people were reluctant to use after the
breach. Hiring more software engineers is thus key to overcoming
future breaches and maintaining customer peace of mind. “It be-
comes a reputational risk issue,” says Alex Barinka of Bloomberg
News. “These kinds of issues used to not be on the tops of the
minds [of chief executive offi cers]. . . . Now they are.” 11

Defending Against Insiders

Data thieves do not only lurk outside of a company; increasingly,
company insiders are the ones who perpetrate data breaches. In
fact, a 2016 study found that 74 percent of chief information se-
curity offi cers were concerned about their own employees steal-
ing sensitive company information. As a result, some companies
hire systems engineers to solely work in security. Those engineers
keep a watchful eye both inside and outside company lines. For
instance, if a fast food company has a secret recipe so classifi ed
that even the employees cannot access it, they will hire a software
engineer to create a sort of virtual safe featuring complex pass-
words and codes to ensure the recipe is not leaked.
There are many ways an engineer can go about designing
cybersecurity solutions or any other piece of software. Many
software engineers appreciate the technical as well as creative

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