Online Accounts and Data Security, Why the Need?
Find out why data security is very important in our digital age and learn better ways to keep your offline and online data secured.
Data storage has become part of our daily lives in our digital age where technological advancement has created room for more data storage. The easiest and most efficient way to do this is through computers and related technologies. However, we must admit the fact that saving data (information) alone is not a perfect security solution! Yes, data saved is not the same as data secured. This means saving data (or information) also requires some level of security.
What is data security?
Secured data is any data that is kept out of any threat, physical or electronic damage and is always available when needed by its keeper. This means any data that is said to be secured should be kept away from corruption and any second or third party who may intend to steal it, possibly, for malicious intents. Hence storing data for future access is different from securing data for future use.
Data may be saved in many ways, from local storage to cloud (remote) storage, offline to online storage, among many others. Regardless of the technology adopted to store data, there’s always a need and a way to keep it secured. Even the least important personal information stored should never be underestimated when it comes to data security. If stored data gets to the hands of the wrong person, or possibly the unintended group, bad things could happen as you never know what could be done with it.
Plus there are always people who are looking to steal data. It could be financial information about an individual, organization, business group, company, or industry. Cybercriminals use stolen data to play dirty games―usually gaining at the expense of the victims! The truth is that getting sensitive data from an individual who belongs to a group or organization can just be enough to rob the entire group; and, this should never be taken on a lighter consideration.
More accounts and data breaches in the news
Recently, one of the largest tech writing groups, TechCrunch, was said to have been hacked and the news suggested this was possible due to the hacker gaining access to a contributing writer’s account based on a weaker password the latter created. Yahoo was hacked, GoToMyPC users’ account information was stolen, and some Twitter accounts were hacked. Plus numerous major and minor site attacks recorded over the past years.
In light of the extent of account stealing cases―be they smaller or larger, the need for data security is still a primary concern. As suggested in the news, the years ahead will witness a massive data-stealing explosion if steps are not taken to learn from and close the openings that led to the numerous account and data breaches that happened in the past years. For this reason, and many more, data security is very important in our digital age.
As if that is not enough, there is also the incidence of data destruction and data corruption leading to data loss. While some hackers may want to steal sensitive data of customers such as credit card details and other useful personal information for material purposes, others just love to destroy useful customer data to undermine companies. For the latter group of hackers, seeing things go wrong is just one fun they love to explore. However funny and weird that may seem to be, trust me, there are always people who just share the pleasure of doing that.
Can we also forget the fact that improper data backup practices can also result in data insecurity? Yes, it is not always third parties who steal and destroy others’ information. The fact is that a massive factor of data or information loss is more a result of the making of the first parties involved rather than external making.
Read Seven (7) proven ways to ensure data security
This is especially true because the type of technology adopted in data storage, if not better optimized, can lead to data loss. This is one hurdle most individuals face in a world of complex and sophisticated data management. Offline and online data backups, as well as local and remote data management practices, need to be rethought and reviewed in the context of data security.
In conclusion, the information presented in this article reflects on data security concerns that raise serious questions in the mind. Let us now project our discussion to some of the most useful ways of securing our data―using both online and offline practices. Find out more information in the next article and get answers to the questions on data security practices.
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