Week 11: Clear on Danger in Data Breach

Is Your Private Information Safe? 

"Padlock " by Declan Jewell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/declanjewell/2472470758/

Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Entering your information in a website could potentially be dangerous in the long run. The databases that hold your information could be compromised. If that happens, millions of people's information will be released, possibly to the public. Once a companies data is breached, they could have long term access without the company knowing. 

Many companies have been shunned in the past for their insecure databases which have ultimately led to millions of people's credentials to be released to hackers.  A firm example of this is the Playstation Network's massive data breach. A hacker that manipulated the system's security was able to extract millions of user's account information.

 This includes, but is not limited to:

• Their Name
• Their Address
• Their E-Mail Address
• Their Password that they may have used on other secure websites
• Their Credit Card Information

This will lead the company to run into lawsuits and a large reduction of sales. Who would want to buy from a company that just went through a terrible incident like that? I wouldn't trust a company that allowed a hacker to take millions of people's credit card information! The people who's information was leaked could potentially file a lawsuit against Sony for having their personal information made public to malicious users such as hackers due to the company's poor security system. For years now, people will think twice before putting their information on the playstation network again. Also, the government may have to intervene in some instances and have Sony follow set rules. Doing that will cause the company to lose many sales because they aren't focusing on profiting, just on meeting requirements. 

This is extremely relative to the business work because you may enter your personal information on a website and it may be in the wrong hands without you knowing. You may invest your companies' dollars into a company that has been breached. This could cause potential losses in profit and you may have to find other places to invest in. You must be very careful with your money and what you do with it!

An article i found particularly interesting was:

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/data-breach

This article explains what a data breach is in depth and really helps one understand the concepts. It was a great read!

Thanks for reading! See you next week!