Google's Spirit Airlines auction & TrendAI insider threat report

This week, Bobby Hellard and Scott Bekker talk with ITPro's news & analysis editor, Ross Kelly, to discuss some of the top stories from August.

That includes Google acquiring a treasure trove of data from a defunct airline in a bid to bolster AI products. The auction to acquire data from Spirit Airlines hit headlines this month as Google outbid another industry player looking to capitalize on a trove of information.

We also discuss TrendAI's insider threat report, which looked at how cyber criminals are building increasingly sophisticated insider threat networks.

Highlights

"As a a failed Spirit Airlines customer, I once had a feudal trip where I was trying to get to a Microsoft conference, and I was in line, and they're like, "Yeah, your flight's canceled. We can get you there in four days. I was like, "Yeah, I'm never doing Spirit again. But was there any customer data other than the customer chats in this volume of data?"

"A big part of the issue here is how do you tackle insider threats? Because it's quite a broad category here in terms of what we're talking about. Insider threats can be just people not doing their job correctly, not following best practices. We've covered stories on that before. Another big thing is that people who are doing this deliberately, research from CFAS last year found that one in eight UK employees have actually sold company logins, or they know someone who has. So, you know that one in eight doesn't sound huge, but I think that's really concerning there."

Links

• Google just spent $10 million in an auction for Spirit Airlines data
• Hackers are building a global insider threat recruitment network