Businesses (large and small), government agencies, financial institutions, healthcare providers and even computer security firms are being hacked. Their data (some of which invariably relates to you as a business, an individual, a consumer, and a person with certain affinities, closeted skeletons, health issues and legal or financial problems) cannot be regarded as secure.
The more highly dependent we become on mobile messaging, cyberspace data storage, zip drives, e-commerce and automatic bill payment via computer, the more vulnerable we become.
By hacking, I mean every type of informationa intrusion from social engineering (i.e., where a rogue employee at an insurance or other firm steals data and sells it), to credit card skimming, illicit GPA tracking, downloading of viruses, tracerware (keystroke loggers and the like, as well as GPS "locators"), phishing, trojan horses designed to take over some aspect of an electronic device's functioning, signal interception, secret duplication and re-routing of confidential data, brute force password decryption, hijacking of network connections, turning computers and mobile phones into transmitters of information to third parties, and just the ability to launch a robotic assault against a website or application. Various highly connective social media platforms and applications are helping to ease access to would-be abusers. Apple and Mac users have increased in numbers and percentages, and sure enough, the hackers are finding new opportunities to infiltrate these systems as they have done for years with PCs.
Hackers tend to emulate the viruses and worms that they create. They are very clever, very dangerous, capable of mutation and adaptation, and very good at disguising their presence from the host or victim.
The opportunities for hackers to access and utilize valuable information are increasing with our informational and communications habits -- so too are the opportunities for firms which are developing privacy safeguards, back-ups, firewalls, intrusion detectors, employee access controls, multi-layer security sytems, super-secured storage and security audit programs and assessment systems.
These latter parties will find giant and ever-expanding markets in both the private and public sectors, in organizations of all sizes and industries, and even for each other. Feeding on this insecurity-fueled market and concerned- investor environment (on both Main Street and Wall Street), venture capitalists and accredited angel investors will be increasing their interest in companies that are developing these countermeasure technologies.
With the recent hacking of Citigroup, the IMF, and a number of healthcare firms and record retention and storage facilities, informational security is becoming a recurring front-page news theme.
An example follows:
Is it safe for you to bank online?
The recent Citibank hacking shows why you need to take these precautions. Easiest way crooks can get into your PC
Related links
####Informational security, data recovery, employee "watchware" and other fields are evolving at an accelerating pace, lagging slightly behind the development of new invasion and intrusion techniques and technology by the "black hats." Not surprisingly, many of these "black hats" are the ultimate opportunists -- they create a problem, and then sell an antidote to the disease which they themselves have created.
There will be some wonderful investment opportunities throughout the Global Economy in some early-stage ventures which show some promise in terms of developing scalable, customizable defenses and antidotes.
Faithfully,
Douglas E Castle, Chairman, TNNWC Group, LLC
Note: This article, in variations, was originally published in THE GLOBAL FUTURIST, THE NATIONAL NETWORKER (TNNWC) SUPPLEMENTAL RSS FEED, REASON OUT OF RANDOMNESS, and ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVICE AND INSIGHTS. In Reason Out Of Randomness, the article was titled "Hacking And Information Theft - No Business Or Organization Is Immune."
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- Hackers and thieves a growing Web menace (boston.com)
- Citibank Breach: 6 Tips to Bank Safely (abcnews.go.com)
- Companies That Can't Keep Your Secrets (247wallst.com)
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