Thursday, June 23, 2011

Online security and protecting our data

Should I be worried?
This morning I heard an interesting ABC Radio Program on Life Matters called Hacking: why we need to worry about online security. At first I thought it was a bit of a scare campaign on things like online banking, shopping and paying bills. But it got me thinking? How much do I really think before I go wacking my credit card details into an online form? Answer: probably not enough. I usually use PayPal where possible but so many times  if I'm buying tickets or accommodation or anything - I just put the details in without thinking about it too much! I guess I'm lucky so far? Has anyone been not so lucky? There was also alot of talk about how hackers are getting better at accessing data from your mobile phone when you use a wireless network for online banking, paying bills or online shopping. When I looked into it further it turns out the world of cloud computing puts our personal data at greater risk of being hacked than ever before! This is scary stuff! Do we really need to worry about this? Please share your opinions.

Here are some recent stories about online security:
Story from The Conversation on recent hacker attacks
Story from BBC news on cloud computing and protecting your data
A string of recent stories on hacking from ABC news
Stories on hacking from mashable.com

2 comments:

  1. Check your url bar, make sure it reflects where you think you should be. Don't Google for mybanksite.com and click on a link that looks like your bank, type it in. Check for https and your little yellow padlock :) don't make transactions on open wifi networks even if it is over https/ssl > http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/sslsniff/ that you wouldn't want others seeing.

    Anyway :) that's enough mumbo jumbo for now ;)

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  2. How to secure your Gmail account
    http://www.cnet.com.au/how-to-secure-your-gmail-account-339316817.htm

    Qasim

    ReplyDelete