Consumer Protection Says Kwik Trip Cyberattack a Reminder to Improve Business IT Security

Monday, October 30th, 2023 -- 12:00 PM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) A recent cyberattack that shut down Kwik Trip's loyalty program is a reminder that businesses need robust information security.

In the wake of the cyberattack that hit Kwik Trip, state consumer protection is reminding all businesses to improve their information security. Director Michael Domke says the most common entry point for hackers is called phishing. 

"A bad actor attempts to get an employee of a business to respond to an email or text messages or click on a link or just give them access to things that they shouldn't have access to."

Domke says many companies think they're too small to get targeted by scammers. "They assume that the scammers, if they're going to put in the time and effort, they're looking for the big fish, who are going to have potentially larger databases, of information and customers and so on. And it's just not true."

Domke says companies should audit what sort of information they're keeping on their customers. "We recommend businesses to only retain what you need. If you don't need that information. Don't keep it. And then as you mentioned earlier, but if you aren't going to keep information, make sure it's backed up and know what you have."

Domke recommends that  all companies should at least have an IT or security professional on call to handle their computer security. Kwik Trip has said none of its customer data was breached in the attack.

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