If you follow the news, you’ve probably heard about this case involving stolen credit and debit card information. Identity theft usually doesn’t call for much attention, but the sheer scope of the theft has left the world reeling. Only eleven men have been indicted in the theft of over 40 million credit card numbers from US stores.
“The indictments, which alleged that at least nine major U.S. retailers were hacked, were unsealed Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts, and San Diego, California, prosecutors said.”
The information was stolen with “sniffer” programs in the retail software, designed to record credit card numbers, passwords and account information.
The size of this theft is amazing, but it makes one think about technology and where it’s headed. Just how much damage could a hacker accomplish in the near future? With the internet consistently taking the place of personal hard drives (Google Documents, Flickr, Facebook), we’re relying more and more on the Internet for our personal data. In the future we’ll see fingerprints, facial recognition software and retinal scans added into the mix for added security – but how safe will this all be?
The thing about data is that it can always be hacked. Even the most encrypted software on Earth can be disassembled, rewritten and pirated. In order to recognize your voice, your eyes or your fingerprints a computer has to store this information somewhere. So what happens if a hacker gets a hold of this information?
Imagine trying to log on to Gmail and finding out your entire account has been wiped out. Imagine trying to access an ATM machine and discovering your retinal scan has been replaced with the scans of someone else. Imagine trying to get through airport security and you find that your fingerprints have been erased from the system. This is just a small view of what the future holds for identity theft. Whereas decades before proof that you existed as a human being was stored and backed up with paper, in the future we have the potential to have our entire lives erased in the blink of an eye. Our Email accounts, bank accounts, cellphones, housing, internet, car registration, even old school records that prove you existed at some point.
The idea of such comprehensive hacks isn’t too far off.
Clear, the airport security company, records everything from passport numbers, drivers license, home address and even a retinal scan in order to help speed it’s users through the security checkpoints. They recently had a laptop containing the information of 33,000 users misplaced. The data stored on the laptop was itself unencrypted. Granted, they did recover the laptop later, but there’s no telling if anyone accessed it or what could have possibly happened had it not been returned.
Even FasTrak, the electronic toll booth collection system in the State of California, has been hacked. Hackers can re-program FasTrak transponders to read false, having the potential to create some of the worst traffic jams in history. On top of this, transponders can be re-programmed to mimic another transponder, meaning you might get a bill totaling double what you normally pay.
As we continue to rely more and more on digital information, it’s important to realize the risks involved in storing information on any device. Companies need to realize that anything can be hacked, but there are precautions they can take to minimize the loss. And as for hackers? What the future holds for digital information promises to be an increasingly veritable gold mine of personal information to those who seek it.
Image: d70focus (Flickr,CC-Attribution)
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