A lot of us rarely think twice about making online transactions these days. It has certainly become a part of our daily lives as we exchange information over the web. By transactions, I refer to both financial transactions, in terms of online shopping or using food delivery service, as well as non-financial transactions, where we simply provide personal information in exchange of information that we seek from the website. With its ability to make life easier and better, we have become extremely reliant on IT for a number of reasons. Due to the advancement in online security and encryption systems, most people have stopped paying attention to the consequences of a (deliberate) failure in this system.
Information sensitive platforms such as Google, Facebook or major banks use highly sophisticated data encryption infrastructure that promises to protect our data from getting into the wrong hands and even government (Google, 2016). By promising to use our personal data to improve their services and offer more personalized services, these companies encourage us to share more data that makes us vulnerable.
The number of cybercrime cases are on an all-time high. Billions of dollars are lost each year throughout the world due to such cyberattacks ($525 million in US itself), and this doesn’t even consider the non-financial consequences (loss of identity, depression, suicides, bullying, etc.) (Statistica. 2011). The risk of fraud and identify theft only becomes larger as the network grows, the increase of fingerprint protection systems on mobile devices potentially provides access to people’s fingerprints all over the world. Considering that fingerprints are one of the most unique feature that can be used to identify humans, the risk of fraud only increases further.
In February 2016, a hacker group tried to steal almost a billion dollars from Bangladesh’s central bank account held at New York’s Federal Reserve and eventually managed to get away with $81 million using a loophole in the SWIFT code system (Al Jazeera. 2016). The cyber-attack at Sony Entertainment in 2014 further provides proof to the intensity of the problem as it cost the studio as much as $100 million in financial costs itself (Richwine, L. 2014). On a smaller scale, consider how using VPN and cloud services, we can access our data from any part of the world and how risky it could be if it was someone else.
Consider the string of emails related to Hilary Clinton retrieved and published by WikiLeaks recently. Thinking about the kind of classified and secretive information these emails seem to have contained and their importance to the current elections, it is fair to say that these emails must have been deleted using the best and most sophisticated systems in the world. If an outsider, such as WikiLeaks, could still manage to obtain and publish information that was deleted using the highest standards, it should really be considered as a topic to think about. It is often talked about that big companies try to shut down and absorb smaller companies/ inventions that might potentially challenge their place in the industry in the future and it’s obvious that they are making use of the data.
To sum it up, it is important to consider the consequences and know the right trade-off. The fact that people are willing to be vulnerable and take the risk gives us an estimate of our dependence and the impact of IT in our lives. It seems like an extremely important challenge of the 21st century that bounds to have extremely consequences and it is likely that a lot of companies will be increasing their investments and offerings in this area. Until then, the only way to keep ourselves safe is to not become overly reliant on big companies and watch our own back.
If you’re interested to know more about how to keep our personal data more safe, feel free to check out the following articles:
- 10 ways to keep your personal data safe from online snoopers: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/16/10-ways-keep-personal-data-safe
- How to keep your personal information secure: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0272-how-keep-your-personal-information-secure
- Key managerial takeaways from Sony hack: http://www.darkreading.com/risk/6-ways-the-sony-hack-changes-everything-/a/d-id/1319415
References:
Al Jazeera. 2016, ‘How safe is your personal information on the internet?’, Al Jazeera Inside Story, 28 April, viewed 22 October 2016, http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2016/04/safe-personal-information-internet-160428170937283.html
Google. 2016, ‘You have the controls to manage your own privacy.’, Google Take Control, viewed 22 October 2016, https://privacy.google.com/take-control.html
Richwine, L. 2014,’ Cyber attack could cost Sony studio as much as $100 million’, Reuters, 9 December, viewed 22 October 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sony-cybersecurity-costs-idUSKBN0JN2L020141209
Statistica. 2016, ‘Statistics and Market Data on Cyber Crime’, Statistica, viewed 22 October 2016, https://www.statista.com/markets/424/topic/1065/cyber-crime/
