Data Breech
No, we did not join Facebook (FB) with its data breech of over 500m users data (32m in the US), and we don’t keep any information about those who receive e-mails or client-based literature, or even those who visit our website, so you can relax, but we were curious as to whether our personal or company information had ever been part of one of the many large data breeches seen over the last few years. A popular site havebeenpwned.com gives one the ability to check their e-mail accounts or phone numbers to see if they have appeared in any postings by those who have hacked into social media or other databases that contain customer information.
Just as an example, one personal e-mail account tested indicated that it was part of a massive posting of 80m unique e-mail addresses and passwords that had been compiled (illegally of course) from almost 3,000 data breeches, a breach of “Fly on the Wall’s” website that happened in 2017, and a number of other high volume security breaks that have happened over the last few years. The good news is that almost all of the other personal e-mail addresses we tried were ‘clean’ and had not been posted as part of any security break-ins.
While the complexity of managing billions of pieces of information held by social media companies or similar databases is truly overwhelming, aside from password managers and the like, the best way to avoid becoming a statistic in the world of internet security breaches is to not leave your information on the site. Yes it is a pain to have to re-enter your credit card every time you use an on-line banking app, but do you trust some group of yoyos in a windowless building to have made sure that no one is able to steal your account number and password? Isn’t it enough that most site have much of your purchasing, viewing, and personal data saved ‘in order to provide a better user experience’ and social media sites have access (technically ‘own’) your pictures, posts, tweets, and tons of other information that they sell or use to ‘suggest’ things for you to purchase or look at?
Spend a few moments on the ‘Dark Web’ and you will forever use an alias and dummy e-mail accounts when on-line. “I use a VPN,” is what we hear when we talk about security to most investors, but while the communication between you and the website you are visiting is encrypted, do you know anything about the servers on which your VPN stores its information about you, and from what we hear that new refrigerator of yours has been talking to other refrigerators about those late night snacks you’ve been having and the pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia you have stashed in the back of the freezer…
Just as an example, one personal e-mail account tested indicated that it was part of a massive posting of 80m unique e-mail addresses and passwords that had been compiled (illegally of course) from almost 3,000 data breeches, a breach of “Fly on the Wall’s” website that happened in 2017, and a number of other high volume security breaks that have happened over the last few years. The good news is that almost all of the other personal e-mail addresses we tried were ‘clean’ and had not been posted as part of any security break-ins.
While the complexity of managing billions of pieces of information held by social media companies or similar databases is truly overwhelming, aside from password managers and the like, the best way to avoid becoming a statistic in the world of internet security breaches is to not leave your information on the site. Yes it is a pain to have to re-enter your credit card every time you use an on-line banking app, but do you trust some group of yoyos in a windowless building to have made sure that no one is able to steal your account number and password? Isn’t it enough that most site have much of your purchasing, viewing, and personal data saved ‘in order to provide a better user experience’ and social media sites have access (technically ‘own’) your pictures, posts, tweets, and tons of other information that they sell or use to ‘suggest’ things for you to purchase or look at?
Spend a few moments on the ‘Dark Web’ and you will forever use an alias and dummy e-mail accounts when on-line. “I use a VPN,” is what we hear when we talk about security to most investors, but while the communication between you and the website you are visiting is encrypted, do you know anything about the servers on which your VPN stores its information about you, and from what we hear that new refrigerator of yours has been talking to other refrigerators about those late night snacks you’ve been having and the pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia you have stashed in the back of the freezer…
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