Commentary

Lares Institute recently hosted an event regarding the Internet of Things and privacy. The panel openly discussed what our smart phones currently know about their users. One panelist even showed a B2B safety system for drivers that records 12-second video snippets of the driver and the vehicle in order for employers to give feedback to drivers to improve safety. There was also a discussion regarding businesses that provide perishable food items wish to improve customer satisfaction by knowing when their customers would be home to receive their items.

While convenience is desirable, the Internet of Things is working its way to eradicate privacy, whether or not it is intentional. Hackers have ways to access information and obtain private information now. The potential risk and exposure will increase exponentially if there isn’t a line in the sand. For more on this topic, please click here:: Takeaways from the International Data Privacy Day: The Internet of Things
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Education is key for prevention and protection. The government initiatives to spread awareness about the importance of security have become widespread. But is it effective?

New research collected by SecureData and Vanson Bourne investigated the impact that government security initiatives had on end-user organizations this past year and the results are bittersweet. Only 47% of the companies surveyed said that the initiatives helped communicate the importance of security throughout their organization. While the percentile isn’t even half, the process might just be slow to roll. For more information about these findings, click here:: Do government initiatives increase security awareness?
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Anthem Insurance, one of the United States’ largest health care insurance providers, announced that there had been a breach into their database yesterday. Hackers gained access to as many as 80 million personal records of current and former customers and employees, including those affiliated with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. If you are enrolled with Anthem, what should you do to protect yourself?

While medical and financial information wasn’t taken, other private information including names, birthdays, social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information, including some income data. So what should you do? Stay alert, monitor your credit reports and consider setting up fraud alerts for creditors and lenders to inform you when someone is using your name or social security number. File your taxes early so that no one else can claim to be you. Also, be sure to monitor other online accounts to see if any hackers try to access them using the information they stole from your Anthem account. While you’re at it, change all the passwords and security questions for them as well.

The best thing to do right now is to read our article titled “Identity Protection – Do I Really Need It?” It is very likely to contain the answers your looking for right now and will provide you with facts and solutions.

For more details on the breach itself, click here to see what NBC News had to say
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If you’re a Facebook user (which is likely), you might remember seeing a message from Facebook regarding a change in their privacy policy. Well, it has arrived and if you have logged into your account last Friday, you’ve already agreed to their terms and conditions. How nice. Thanks to that, your information is now shared with partnered sites and apps.

This has proven to be an ongoing frustration between Facebook and its users. A website that forces you to monitor your settings and change them to your preferences every few months isn’t just a hassle, it is purposefully trying to catch its users asleep at the wheel. The bottom line is that if you want to be fully protected and private, sadly, you’ll just have to delete your account. Read more about the policy and its controversy here:: Facebook’s got a new privacy policy and it plans to share your data with partners
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The FCC is likely proposing to regulate internet service like a public utility in the wake of the net neutrality movement. While there is expected to be backlash from cable companies and debate will ensure, the question is still out there. How will this effect data security?

If the internet remains neutral, not much will change. We still have the same problems and solutions. With that said, if there is content blocking or pay-to-play fast lanes, then there might be issues. If you discover your online account has a breach, it would be terrible to not be able to change your information or report it due to having a “slower lane” than your hacker. There could be other problems in the mix as well that we are currently overlooking. Read up on the latest in the net neutrality discussion here:: In Net Neutrality Push, F.C.C. is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as a Utility
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