“Scripting SNAFU” – A True Cautionary Tale

An anecdote shared by a local business dramatically demonstrates the danger of relying on old-fashioned file transfer scripts within your organisation.

Million Dollar Mishap

An Australian business was using legacy scripts to copy their customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) between systems within their business. 

Now, PII – personal details such as name, address, phone number, date of birth, bank details etc – is the most protected kind of consumer information under Australian law.  Businesses which mishandle it expose themselves to penalties potentially as high as $50M.

One day, a staff member in this business accidentally deleted a customer’s data directory – an error that went unnoticed.  When the legacy file transfer script ran as per its usual schedule, attempting to copy the customer’s updated PII to their customer directory, it couldn’t.  The destination directory was missing.

So the script copied the customer’s PII to a different customer’s directory!  This meant the original customer’s PII was now visible to and accessible by the wrong customer – in breach of Australia’s Privacy Act.

Better Managed File Transfers

GoAnywhere MFT – the world’s leading Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution – would have prevented this error from occurring. It tightly controls where files are transferred from and to, with high levels of authentication and encryption. 

GoAnywhere remains vigilant.  If it detects anomalies in its authorised file transfers, it doesn’t proceed.  Instead, it sends an immediate alert to an authorised employee so that the issue can be addressed – before any data is lost or privacy laws broken.

However, there are many more reasons why you should replace file transfer scripts with the world’s leading MFT…

No Safe Scripts

Scripts aren’t secure. For example, data sent via FTP is transferred “in the clear” – an easy target for external hackers, or curious employees and vendors. Worse, user credentials aren’t encrypted, putting your entire system at risk.

Scripts lack advanced features. For example, automating file transfers with FTP requires adding a second solution, a time-consuming and complex prospect.  It’s also difficult to build in re-try features, and lock down how users interact with sensitive data.

Scripts don’t play well with new systems. For example, cloud-based computing environments require file transfers to be integrated with cloud-based solutions, and platforms such as Azure and AWS.

Scripts are time consuming. Developing, maintaining, and troubleshooting scripts takes time, distracting valuable support staff from more important things.  And if your support staff aren’t available when a script fails, it can bottleneck your organisation’s entire workflow.

A Happy Ending

So, what happened to the business whose missing directory accidentally exposed their customer’s PII…?

After one of their customers reported that they were seeing a different customer’s PII, the business scrambled to quickly address the problem.  They re-created the necessary customer directories and manually moved their customer’s data to where it belonged.

Whew!

But it’s what they did next that made the biggest difference…

Determined to prevent the possibility of any such error ever recurring, the business immediately conducted a comparison of Managed File Transfer solutions.  

They selected GoAnywhere, the industry’s leading Managed File Transfer – and became a Generic Systems Australia customer!

Leveraging The Experience

If you’d like to learn more about how GoAnywhere MFT could put guardrails around your business’s handling of PII, please feel welcome to get in touch with me.  I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, or provide a quick and easy proof of concept.

At Generic Systems Australia we’re your local experts in MFT solutions.