Companies hold more data on us today than ever before, and many of us are left in the dark on just where our personal, often sensitive, information lives. The daily headlines on data breaches and the mainstream attention in the form of documentaries like Netflix’s “The Great Hack” and “The Social Dilemma” have made clear to the public: it’s time we all do a data detox.
Data Privacy Day is a global effort — taking place annually on January 28th — that generates awareness about the importance of privacy, highlights easy ways to protect personal information and reminds organizations that privacy is good for business. Here, Security magazine compiled advice, tips and best practices for safeguarding data from many security executives.
The WebsitePlanet research team in cooperation with Security Researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered a non-password protected database that contained over 323,277 court related records. Upon further investigation, the researchers discovered that the records were all related to Cook County, Ill., the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County.
In a letter, U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, urged the acting federal education secretary to open a federal investigation into Florida's Pasco County school district's practice of sharing student data with law enforcement.
As global tensions continue to escalate, the Internet may find itself used as a weapon, something we are already starting to see happen, by nations attempting to exert their influence and enforce greater internal control over digital commerce and communication. Nations must recognize the threat of escalation beyond the point of no return and take steps to ensure that the interconnectivity of the open Internet remains intact long-term. This will prevent a “cyber dark age” in which governments implement national Internet protocols and stop the free flow of data across borders.
The rise of high-profile data breaches and the implementation of data privacy laws have raised awareness that businesses and institutions rely on consumer information. While there is no single, comprehensive U.S. federal data privacy law, there are enough industry-specific compliance regulations in force in addition to HIPAA, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and a growing number of state privacy laws, that every organization needs to step up and recognize how subject rights requests fit into its data protection and cybersecurity policies.
As companies think about how to navigate this new landscape of privacy laws and cybersecurity threats, here are a few major trends and predictions to consider:
Today’s customers rarely bat an eye when they receive a security alert from a company with which they do business. That’s because large tech companies have baked identity confirmation and notifications of suspicious activities into their everyday user experiences.
With the world transitioning to ecommerce, your online store is vital for ensuring your products are moving and sales are coming in. While you “can’t sell what you don’t have” in the retail world, you certainly can’t sell without a working online store in the ecommerce arena. Take the steps needed to ensure that all the goodwill and progress you made strengthening your online presence in 2020 is not wiped out in the coming year.
