Legacy Tech Terror - a TRUE Horror Story

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

"It began as a day like any other..."

One day, a staff member accidentally deleted a customer’s data directory. It was a simple error, and one that went unnoticed for a time.  However, it was an error with unexpectedly dire consequences.

Late in the day, as they had done faithfully for many years beforehand, the business's legacy file transfer scripts ran on their usual schedule. It was routine, mundane, normal. The IT team paid no attention to it. They'd never needed to. It just worked.

Or so it seemed...

The Perils of PII

One of the legacy scripts was responsible for copying customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) between systems.  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.

On the day in question, this legacy script began copying customer PII between systems. But when it tried to copy one customers PII to the deleted data 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 customer’s PII was now visible to and accessible by the wrong customer - a clear breach of Australia’s Privacy Act.

Disaster-Proof File Transfers

Now, 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.

In fact, 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.

The Rescue Mission

So, you're probably wondering: what happened to the business who accidentally exposed their customer’s PII?

Fortunately for them, a kindly customer spotted that they were seeing another customer’s PII. So the business scrambled to quickly address the problem.  They re-created the necessary customer directories and worked through the night to manually move their customer’s data back where it belonged.

Whew! 

However, 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.

Don't Become a PII Horror Story!

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.