Hack, after
hack, after hack, after hack . . .
They seem to
never end, and just when you think that the news has covered them all . . .BAM!
Another organization is breached.
Many of us sit
back and think “Oh, those BIG companies. They are the main target, the big
game, and no security cracker would go for the little guy.” The truth is that
many are susceptible to a breach, not just the big players. From websites to
blogs, security crackers are willing to take down any website or blog. This
concerns us at first but then we fall back into our daily routines and forget
that there is more at stake here than an annoying virus. You could be a victim
at this very moment . . .
Really? They
are after my stuff?
They sure are.
According to Nicole Perlroth, author of The New York Times blog, bits.com,
the Verizon “report shows that no matter the size of the organization — large,
small, government agencies, banks, restaurants, retailers — people are stealing
data from a range of different organizations and it’s a problem everyone has to
deal with.” This is a very serious truth that must be realized and dealt with.
Before you
start thinking that these breaches only happen from the inside, let’s take a
closer look. Perlroth states that the “14 percent of all data breaches were the
work of insiders. Most were the work of
external actors who are often difficult to pinpoint because attackers often
route their Web traffic through infected computers around the world,” and “30
percent of all attacks originated in China.”
But wait . . .
let’s not stop here!
Lest you think
all are password guessed or email based attacks, stopthehacker.com’s
blog expounds the Ten Scariest Hacking Statistics:
- PlayStation Network: 77 million user accounts
compromised
- Intellectual Property Stolen: $1 trillion
dollars worth of intellectual property stolen
- Passwords: It takes only 10 minutes to crack a
lowercase password that is 6 characters long
- Victims: 73 percent of Americans are victim to
some type of cyber crime
- Time is Not on Your Side: 156 day lapse between
the attack and detection
- Business is Booming: 90 per of all businesses
were attacked
- Zombies Everywhere: bot net of 1.9 million
zombie computers
- Infected Sites: every day 30,000
websites are infected with malware
- Vulnerable Sites: the average site has over 115
serious vulnerabilities
- Who are You: 27 million Americans have fallen
victim to identity theft
Can I remind
you that identity theft is a serious issue? The United
States Department of Justice states, “A victim's losses may include not
only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs
associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and
correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.” There
are other great resources on this site like What Should
I Do to Avoid Becoming a Victim of Identity Theft? With identity theft
there is no messing around. This is your identity, it is who you are, a record
of your character. Don’t let someone without an identity take that away from
you . . . ever!
I am not here
to scare you into taking your blog or website off of the Internet, but rather,
make you aware of the very real dangers that are out there waiting to make you
one of the countless victims. Don’t let the security crackers and black hackers
of the world take pleasure in your pain.
Do something
about it!
Note: this is not an attack against
those that are helping advance technology for the greater good.
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