Computer data of many government’s around the world are at risk from hackers who target social security and many other information for use in identity theft. Cases such as discarded computers left with functioning hard drives, lost storage hardware and many others highlight the need for strict encryption and security of such information. The UK and US have some of the most secure computer systems but when their people fail to observe proper protocol it’s there when the problems begin.
Encryption of databases allows hardware to contain information that is useless without the proper decryption system. These systems are quite expensive though but they may be necessary to save the growing amount of information being gathered and stored each and every day.
Studies are showing that big businesses are still failing to comply with security protocol that have been developed to prevent such problems. From portable hard drives to the most troublesome flash disks, malware is still getting into these big companies even with heavy investment in security software.
The most detrimental factor is the attitude of people who are the weakest links in the IT security equation. Complacency and utter disregard for security protocol such as scanning drives before you use them and scanning again when transferring from computer to computer is to blame. People bring their drives home to finish off work using an infected computer thereby transferring malware in an attack from within once they get into their office PC.
It’s all now a dream, the ability of Mac’s to laugh at the millions of malware that target pc’s running windows for even they are now subject to attacks keeping people at Apple busy. Though based on a totally different Operating systems that used to protect them, they are now seeing a measurable number of attacks specifically targeting Mac’s through the internet.
There is built-in protection from Apple but updates rarely come to keep them protected. People using Mac’s should update once they are available to prevent intrusion and the usual regimen of scans when using flash drives and other portable storage is always in order.
