Consumer education key to cybercrime war
Is it better to try to chase down cybercriminals, or educate computer users? That’s the ongoing debate among security experts.
On one hand, there have been some huge victories recently in the battle against the bad guys. This week, three men were arrested in connection with a creating a “botnet” that infected an estimated 13 million computers from 190 countries and stole personal and financial information.
In 2008, the alleged mastermind of the largest cybercrimes in history was arrested. Albert Gonzalez is responsible for the greatest data breaches in history, including Heartland Payment Systems, TJX, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven, Citibank, J.C. Penney, and Dave and Buster’s, according to his indictments.
Gonzalez also supervised an online forum in which more than 160 million credit cards, birth certificates, Social Security cards, PIN numbers and computer login information was exchanged.
So, the good guys must be winning the war, right? Probably not. (more…)
American military veterans have been put at risk again. An unencrypted hard drive associated with eVetRec—the system veterans use to access their health records and discharge papers—was sent first for repairs then for recycling without being wiped of 76 million veterans’ records.
Apparently, hackers stole even more of Express Scripts’ member information than was initially revealed last fall. An additional 1,771 New Hampshire residents are being sent data breach notification letters this week, according to a September 14 letter from Express Scripts.
Here’s how we’d like to think of it: Prison inmates are the stupid ones and their keepers are the smart ones.