Privacy Risks

Data Collection & Storage

Collecting and storing personal information is necessary to perform certain tasks. Particularly business companies collect them to improve customer service. Youtube is a great example; they collect user data, such as videos you watch and search history, to recommend videos you might watch. There are also companies that collect information that’s really important and personal. For instance, insurance companies might collect your social security number to identify you, especially health and life insurance.

When visiting websites, we often see an option pop out, asking if we want to accept cookies. This cookie is an example of how companies track your online activity. Even when you are using apps, you can see the ads are related to what you’re looking for. Or when you’re online shopping, you’ll find the things you add as favorites but didn’t buy last time have a discount. Organizations can’t sell customer’s personal information to any party, but there are still risks.

Companies store and need to protect information from leaking due to all kinds of regulations (HIPAA, GDPR, etc.). But as the data increases, the difficulty of managing security also increases. Attackers develop new ways to breach security, such as sending an email with a link that has a virus; pretending to be someone that has access to the information, and so on. They need to develop and update security or else attackers can decrypt code easily. Physical damage to the storage device also can allow unauthorized access and data loss.

Computing Resources

Misuse & Protection

Computer resources are hardware or software that solve problems by receiving, analyzing, and storing data. Some common ways computing resources can be misused include downloading unauthorized software, unauthorized copying files to portable storage devices, remote access to programs, and more. These actions can lead the malware into the systems, causing data theft, and computer or computer systems corruption. There are different types of malware, often installed without user consent to steal private information, such as spyware, trojans, etc. Other ways include hacking, which are attacks to try to crack passwords; phishing is a technique used to trick an individual into giving them sensitive information, such as credit card details, passwords, financial information, etc.

Hackers constantly develop new ways to attack, but they’re not the only ones evolving. Business owners have to make sure they don’t reveal information, so they have some solutions. First of all, people can install antivirus software; antivirus software can detect malicious files and prevent them from being installed in your computer systems. Although it should be upgraded constantly to make sure it works properly. They can also use firewalls that block suspicious sources, and update all softwares.

But to prevent hackers, you can’t always depend on softwares and firewalls. Other than using those methods, you also need to create strong passwords. Your passwords shouldn’t be too short, and it’s best to mix with letters, numbers, and symbols, so it’s hard to guess. You should also monitor your activity on the network. Checking regularly can help you identify suspicious activity quickly and take actions to stop them.

Information

Unauthorized Access

Hackers can apply special software that has the ability to guess usernames and passwords. They would also find flaws in companies’ software to access information and networks. Other than brute force attacks, they also apply psychological methods to deceive employees. For instance, they use pop-ups on websites to trick users into clicking the link. What’s more troubling is they can use stolen credentials to access even more information in other systems.

Hackers target users with weak passwords, out of date software and firewalls. They either guess the right passwords and gain information, or they sneak malware into your system and steal data. They also mislead users to download malicious files by using outdated websites. There are examples of other types of data breach. For example, accidental internal breach is where an employee views files without authorization but has no intention to share them. On the other hand, intentional internal breach is when an employee views files without authorization and has intention to share them.

Theft of storing devices is another kind of data breach. Storing devices often contain unencrypted information and are easier to gain access to if lost. So it’s best to encrypt content and have a backup. Encryption is a process transforming information to the phase that only certain authorized people can decode them. Backup is best to store it in a safe place and save information frequently, also don’t leave the device connected when you’re not backing up content.

Computing Innovations

Benefits & Risks

Computing innovations have many benefits to everyone. Communications improved because of email, phones, LINE, Instagram, etc. We can shop online easily and it even delivers to where you live. Medical devices improved and saved lives; machines help scientists perform cell separation. It’s easy to collect data now to design and create more new innovations.

Despite all the good, there are many risks with these inventions. The most common one is being infected by a virus. Also hackers try to steal your information and sell it to others. Not just cybercriminals, computing innovation sometimes has problems such as copying another company's product. People losing jobs because they got replaced by computer innovation. Lastly, people become dependent on technology, which is a problem, such as people kept on their phones or using AI to write essays.

People often focus on conveniences and become careless about security. Here are some cases that technology achievements led to unintended consequences. Targeted advertising is to have ads related to what users might like to boost company profit. But it led to collecting private information and higher risks of leaking information. Machine learning is where AI gathers data to learn and improve. Even though this did create many benefits, they also became biased.

References

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