{"id":79606,"date":"2015-10-15T04:13:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T08:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=79606"},"modified":"2015-10-15T10:11:59","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T14:11:59","slug":"can-you-really-protect-your-online-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2015\/10\/can-you-really-protect-your-online-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Really Protect Your Online Data?"},"content":{"rendered":"
October 15, 2015<\/div>
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By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> \"Cyber<\/p>\n

By Greg Miller<\/a>, Senior Technology Analyst<\/em><\/p>\n

In Tuesday evening\u2019s Democratic Primary Debate, the candidates were asked about the biggest threat facing America\u00a0 today.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Middle East volatility and the rise of ISIS were cited, in addition to nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n

But it was somewhat surprising that only one candidate \u2013 former Virginia Senator Jim Webb \u2013 mentioned cyber crime.<\/p>\n

Cyber crime continues to be a constant menace to businesses and consumers alike \u2013 and it\u2019s far easier to perpetrate than making physical war or acquiring nuclear weapons.<\/p>

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We\u2019ve covered this topic many times.<\/p>\n

In August, for example, I covered the particularly embarrassing hack<\/a> of internet \u201cdating\u201d site Ashley Madison, which exposed the details of millions of cheaters, as well as how Fitbit<\/a> put details of some users\u2019 sex lives on the internet.<\/p>\n

As quickly as we put new safeguards in place, unscrupulous hackers find a way to break through. So how safe is your digital data?<\/p>\n

Samsung and Google Suffer the Wrath of Hackers<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve recently seen two other serious data breaches.<\/p>\n

The first instance involves Samsung Electronics Ltd.<\/strong> (SSNLF<\/a>), which revealed that hackers had infiltrated LoopPay, the backbone of the Samsung Pay mobile payment system.<\/p>\n

Samsung was quick to claim that specific customer data had not<\/em> been stolen. But that wasn\u2019t really the point. If hackers can learn enough to identify vulnerabilities, they can get customers\u2019 data at the point of sale or some other way, instead of taking it directly from the network.<\/p>\n

More shocking was the fact that it took Samsung five months<\/em> to even discover that its system had been invaded. So it\u2019s premature for the company to be so confident about what was and wasn\u2019t stolen.<\/p>\n

The second case involves Google Inc.\u2019s<\/strong> (GOOGL<\/a>) Android operating system. Earlier this year, the company created a patch to fix a software bug called Stagefright. The company thought that had solved the problem\u2026 but the issue recently resurfaced and is now spreading though music and video files rather than text messages.<\/p>\n

In addition, a new vulnerability has millions of Android users in Asia and Europe seeing tons more ads and even seeing hackers take over their entire phones. Android\u2019s problem is compounded by the fact that its fixes are slow to trickle out to users.<\/p>\n

So with all these breaches, how can you keep your online data safe?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re Screwed, Right?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the simple answer is that there\u2019s no failsafe way to keep your data from falling into the wrong hands (unless you go completely \u201coff the grid,\u201d of course).<\/p>\n

Heck, even the National Security Agency, one of the most secretive and security-conscious organizations on Earth and undoubtedly the world\u2019s leading encryption authority, can\u2019t keep its data safe. So what chance do the rest of us have?<\/p>\n

The only assurance is that the companies that hold our personal data spend billions of dollars per year to secure it \u2013 as they should. But the truth is, once your personal information is out there, it becomes vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Take the data breach at Target Corp.<\/strong> (TGT<\/a>) in late 2014\u2026<\/p>\n

A Sneak Attack Through the Air Conditioning System<\/h2>\n

Hackers basically sent an email \u201cphishing\u201d scam to Target\u2019s air conditioning supplier.<\/p>\n

Now, corporate firewalls and anti-virus programs block most phishing attacks, while most other attacks are ignored or deleted by recipients. But someone occasionally falls for the spoof. That\u2019s what happened here.<\/p>\n

The phishing message was designed to look legitimate, which gave the thieves enough information to log onto that company\u2019s network. As Target\u2019s air conditioning supplier, it had legitimate access to Target\u2019s network, in order to remotely manage the temperature at stores around the country, so the thieves were able to access Target\u2019s network.<\/p>\n

By itself, this didn\u2019t give them access to customers\u2019 banking information. They then had to figure out where to look for that data and exploit existing software weaknesses to get it.
\nSo they created a new user account with administrative privileges. Target had actually done a good job of encrypting customers\u2019 credit card details, but the thieves wrote software that collected it on the stores\u2019 terminals instead.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that pulling off a heist like this requires intelligence and a lot of work. But it might shock you to learn that all the tools needed to accomplish it are actually freely available on the internet.<\/p>\n

It was worth the work, too. While nobody has revealed exactly how much money the hackers made, Target agreed to pay $67 million to Visa Inc.<\/strong> (V<\/a>) and its affiliated banks to cover the damages.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the bad news. No matter what companies do, how much they spend, and what they promise, no data is 100% safe because so much information whizzes across the internet and so many companies are interconnected.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the good news?<\/p>\n

Assessing the Real Value of Information<\/h2>\n

The bottom line is that having your information online depends on what you\u2019re doing and what you get in return.<\/p>\n

In short, it\u2019s often worth the risk.<\/p>\n

Case in point: Of the 40 million credit cards that hackers stole from Target, no customers actually lost any money. Yes, some were inconvenienced, but Target, the credit card companies, and banks ate the financial losses.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, companies have much more to gain from credit cards and online transactions than to allow consumers to become fearful of using them.<\/p>\n

In other areas, too, information leaks aren\u2019t terribly damaging.<\/p>\n

Take health records, for example. Most people consider this information highly personal, but would it really be monumental if some of it got compromised? It\u2019s not like thieves are broadcasting the information to employers or family members. They\u2019re using it to gain access to drugs and scam insurers.<\/p>\n

Although the value of health information to thieves can be even higher than credit card numbers, the risk to consumers is small. And having your health information widely available to doctors and pharmacists can help you get higher-quality healthcare.<\/p>\n

If you do have \u00a0something that would be embarrassing if someone found out \u2013 such as having an affair or admitting that you\u2019re a New York Jets fan \u2013 you might want to be careful with what you share online.<\/p>\n

And whenever a company asks you for information, always ask what you get in return. If it\u2019s just going to send you an auto-generated birthday email, forget it. But if it\u2019s going to send a coupon or special offer, it might be worth the risk.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, just know that once you put information on the internet, or share it with people who\u2019ll store it digitally, it\u2019s vulnerable. It\u2019s surprising how many people forget this.<\/p>\n

To living and investing in the future,<\/p>\n

Greg Miller<\/p>\n

The post Can You Really Protect Your Online Data?<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com By Greg Miller, Senior Technology Analyst In Tuesday evening\u2019s Democratic Primary Debate, the candidates were asked about the biggest threat facing America\u00a0 today. Naturally, Middle East volatility and the rise of ISIS were cited, in addition to nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands. But it was somewhat surprising that only one candidate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79606"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79634,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79606\/revisions\/79634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}