500 million stolen financial records in the last 12 months

Week after week a new breach is reported, followed by more advice on how best to protect yourself. But as this week’s news roundup from SearchCIO’s Fran Sales shows, the degree to which companies are unprepared for cybercrime is downright scary. She recounts the story of one organization that didn’t know it had been hacked until the FBI was at its door with bad news: The company’s network defenses, such as they were, had been breached and intellectual property stolen.

CIOs should take it as a good sign that the Feds came calling. When you read about what Sales heard from security experts this week at a cybersecurity conference in Boston, it’s clear that fighting cybercrime will take a concerted, coordinated effort by both the private sector and the government. These criminal networks are organized, specialized and highly efficient. Staples realized this when it sought the help of the FBI this week in response to a possible breach of its systems. Experts strongly suggest other companies should follow suit.

In other news this week, robots may be able to help in the fight to contain Ebola, Apple’s quarterly earnings report is out (and it’s not too shabby), IBM is selling its unprofitable chip manufacturing business, and more in this week’s Searchlight.