How Private is YOUR Data?

The internet is a public marketplace. We've heard over and over the horror stories about financial information being stolen and we seem to never do much about it until it hits a little bit closer to home. I once had my PayPal email login and password stolen with my bank account information directly linked to it. These people used my PayPal account to buy a number of domains and hosting services from GoDaddy, but luckily I was near my computer at the time and was able to log in to PayPal right as they were doing it. I learned to never use the same password for two important accounts as they also had access to my email address, going in and changing both my password and the "alternate" email address where a new password could be sent. I would have been helpless in that regard, except I was trying out the new version of MSN messenger for Mac so I could talk to my family in Colombia. I could not log into my email from a web browser as they had already changed the password, but MSN messenger has a direct shortcut to your email address that I was able to use to log in. Because I was already logged into MSN messenger, it allowed me to go back inside of my email and change both my password and my alternate email address. I was extremely lucky, but most people in this situation are usually not.

On a larger scale, large corporations and small businesses alike in today's world are extremely concerned about security breaches. There are hackers out there who focus their time entirely to stealing personal information from others. This is why individuals must be particularly wary of the things they make available on the internet. I'm not sure how these hackers obtained my password, and I consider myself a technically savvy individual. These people are organized criminals and they have streamlined the process of identity theft. From an economic standpoint, the average consumer is targeted repeatedly in attempts to steal financial information. On a larger scale, businesses have to budget large amounts of money for cybersecurity as nobody is really ever safe. When looking at online identity theft from a business's perspective, one has to consider the risk at hand when not just your financial information but also your ideas and goals are on hand. This will ultimately have a negative economic effect no matter how you slice it.

If you're reading this, ask yourself both when the last time you changed your passwords were and how complex they may be to figure out. Consider what kind of information you make available about yourself to the WORLD WIDE web and think about how someone reading that info may now easily be able to answer all of the "security questions" that websites have you fill out currently. Take some preventive measures before it's a little too late.