The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

How safe is our data?

There are several ways to lost our data such as stolen laptops, lost CD or pen drive and systems hacking which contain personal particular of some organisation's employees may expose them to the risk of identity theft. Many organizations have experience of cyber attacks from inside and outside of the organization, even country. The financial losses from cyber attack can be substantial.

For example, there is a case happened on April 2007 at Georgia, where a company lost a CD. The company was hired to handle information by the Georgia Department of Community Health. The CD consists of 2.9 million Georgia residents' data such as names, social security numbers, addresses and members identification for recipients of Medicaid and other medical programme. Those data was not encrypted, therefore potential identity abuse may arise.

Another case happened on September 2006 at Ohio. Hackers broke into the systems of an Ohio hospital and steal personal data of 230,000 patients and their family members plus the financial information of 12,000 donors. It happened when the hospital was upgrading its systems.

How to protect our data?

There are many ways to protect our data, such as:

1) Access control mechanism - Mechanism that limits the actions that can be performed by an authenticated person or group.

2) Passive tokens - Storage devices (e.g. magnetic strips) used in a two-factor autheutication system that contain a secret code.

3) Active tokens - Small, stand-alone electronic devices in a two factor authectication system that generate one-time passwords.

4) Encryption - The process of scrambling (encrypting) a message in such a way that it is difficult, expensive, or time-consuming for an unauthorized person to unscramble (decrypt) it. Encryption helps to secure stored information and information transmission.