Dealing with Data Breaches

As technology advances, it seems like things are getting easier and easier. Not sure what to get at the grocery store? Keep a list on your refrigerator. Need help navigating? You can count on Google Maps (or many other apps) for that. Want to know the weather? Ask Siri or Alexa or Google Home. With all of this ease, however, comes a host of other issues, and one such issue is that of security.

Shopping Online and Security

How much online shopping do you do? The average consumer takes a large percentage of their shopping needs to the internet. Companies offering free two day shipping make it easier now than ever before to buy online, and in some cities you can even have the items you’ve ordered delivered, to your door, in a few hours. With all of this online ease it’s no wonder that people tend to purchase online. Purchasing online, however, requires that you enter your credit card information, and that very information can be used against you.

Identity Theft

It’s extremely easy for a person to take your information and sell your identity. In only a few hours, your identity could be sold on the dark web, and the next thing you know, you’re having to make phone calls to your bank, credit card company and so on. A recent study founded by IBM and completed by the Ponemon Institute shows that 25% of data breaches are attributed to negligence. This means that people fail to properly delete their data from their personal devices, like phones and computers, when they recycle them.

Last year alone data breaches cost United States organizations over $7.9 million dollars, which seems silly because all of this could be fixed by having the electronics recycled properly. The right company will be able to properly wipe the memory of your electronic device so that anything that was stored will no longer be accessible.