Privacy Breach

Privacy breaches have been making headlines in the media daily. Technologically, breaches are the loss or unauthorized access of personal information. A privacy breach could have adverse consequences to an individual or a company. Therefore, internet security becomes so crucial to curbing that unethical practice. In the link, it provides a summary of some of the significant privacy breaches that have occurred in the past. Companies such as yahoo, Uber, and eBay were hacked leading to the loss of the personal information of the users. One of the critical aspects of privacy that was breached was the control of the information of an individual. The Yahoo users had their data in the hands of hackers.

Harm

The summary of breaches provides different companies where the users of Yahoo had their names, email addresses and passwords compromised. In the case of Uber, the driver’s licenses were leaked to hackers. For the company known as the US Office of Personal Management (OPM) had its user’s data stolen.  Security clearance information and fingerprint data were taken. The loss of this data could harm the victim in future in that their emails leaked other more private information that would endanger their security. Some of the emails are linked to PayPal accounts and therefore could lead to loss of money, i.e. thousands of dollars if both the email and PayPal account share the same password.

Privacy Protections

The hashing of passwords is vital in the protection of the user’s account. Yahoo and Adult Friend Finder could have adopted the SHA-2 hashing algorithm. It is fast in execution. However, an increase in the attempts by the attackers to undo the cryptosystem security makes the SHA protection to require improvement. Currently, SHA-3 is almost to be released for better security. In simple terms, the security measures wear off with time.

References

https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-biggest-data-breaches-of-the-21st-century.html