Everyone has heard of the latest scandal regarding the “whatever.com” site being hacked and vital information for over one million people being stolen. Now what would a hacker want with the information some would wonder? The thought behind a hackers motives in most cases, is to just be able to hack the site that says it is “hack proof”. In other cases involving fraud, it is to obtain your personal information and either uses it for spamming or to sell it to scam artists. In any case, a site that is hacked has legal responsibilities one would think.
The latest big websites attacks is more than likely just the theft of work history and name along with references. Now if the information also included Social Security information or annual salary requirements as well as cell phone numbers and credit card or bank information, people are going to have major problems. This type of activity happens all the time, but we only hear about the big news companies in the spotlight. Now if a pet product site that is just starting out and is not a well-known name, they are not going to divulge that information and if they do, it will not make the news headlines.
Everyone uses the Internet for one reason or another and if you are like most people, you may shop, look for work, play games or just browse. In any cases, you need to be careful how you supply your information. A secure site to display your information needs to contain encryption to protect your information if it is for buying and gaming as well. Anytime you give out personal information about yourself, you want to know your information is protected. With the latest scare with hacked websites, people have to wonder, what will they do with that information?
As hackers become more devious in their endeavor to hack into websites and steal the information, more IT technicians will work harder to make the sites and products to secure the sites even better. All the scares that we encounter with our Internet experiences are just another form of criminal activity, unfortunately, it can cause problems for the entire world. Protecting yourself and your computer from a hack attack is top priority and every day, businesses are upgrading their systems and infrastructures to protect vital information.
The best way to protect yourself some had said is, never give out personal information. Unfortunately, this is not always possible. If you want to shop, look for work, do some gaming or sign up for important newsletters and promotions, you have to supply the pertinent information. Therefore, using a little caution as to what sites you use is great, but as it was proved with Monster, even the best of sites can endure problems. This however, is no reason to stop using the Internet.
You just need to be aware of the threat and use good judgment when you visit a website. Some day we will see a system to track and stop hackers from stealing vital information. Companies who make the software and other software for security measures work hard every day to find new ways to stop a hacker. As the hacker gains more strength, software developers gain more security knowledge to stop them in their tracks.
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