Data breaches 2012
Image by Yahoo!
“Wherefore, the things of all nations shall be made known; yea, all things shall be made known unto the children of men. There is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed.”
Though we have not yet reached a time when “all things shall be made known unto the children of men,” we have seen an increasing problem where hackers are accessing personal information.
During the first half of 2012, the Identity Theft Resource Center recorded 213 data breaches. In January that Amazon-owned Zappos was breached, potentially exposing 24 million customers’ personal records. In March Global Payments announced 1.5 million credit card records may have been accessed by hackers.
And just this past week, Yahoo Voices said 400,000 usernames and passwords were stolen.
As our technology increases, so does the potential risk for a data breach. The types of information hackers seek, include: passwords, credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, bank statements, credit reports, social security numbers and driver’s license information.
Here is a list of large data breaches that have happened this year so far.
List of data breaches in 2012
- Zappos- 24,000,000 records. (Global)
- New York State Electric & Gas- 1,800,000 records. (New York)
- Global Payments- 1,500,000 records. (USA)
- California Department of Child Support Services- 800,000 records. (California)
- Utah Department of Technology Services- 780,000 records. (Utah)
- In-Home Supportive Services- 701,000 records. (California)
- University of Nebraska- 654,000 records. (Nebraska)
- Yahoo Voices- 400,000 records. (Global)
- University of North Carolina- 350,000 records. (North Carolina)
- Emory Healthcare- 315,000 records. (Georgia)
- South Carolina Dept. of Health & Human Services- 228,435 records. (South Carolina)
- Thrift Savings Plan- 123,201 records. (USA)
- Public Employees Retirement Association- 100,000 records. (New Mexico)
- City College of San Francisco- 100,000 records. (California)
- Department of Children and Families- 100,000 records. (Florida)
“It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, stil.”
- Samuel Smiles
Personal Notes: I think web security will become more important as we complete more transactions online. I think it will be increasingly important to change our passwords more frequently, and watch more closely our online accounts. Websites could increase their online security by detecting not only what characters make up a password, but how fast each character of the password is typed relative to the others. One company that does this (in addition to facial recognition) is Kryterion.