In the world of digitization where hacking and data leaks are under the spotlight, 24X7, “privacy” is not just a word but a concept. “Data Security” is not just a mission statement but a demand.

Do you know that in the modern world we live in, over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every single day? With so much information already existing and a constant increase in the quantity of data every single minute, IT Security is definitely a task that should be achieved with a more qualitative approach.

Tech Giants & Bloopers!

IT Security is not only about the massive pile of unsecured data but also about the secured data that too are vulnerable. Even technology giants of the world, Facebook and Google are struck in the hands of the never-ending stream of security blunders.

Security researchers discovered records and details of millions of users on publicly accessible Amazon cloud servers which included the names, passwords, comments, likes, and all the other stuff which seemed to have leaked, probably with Amazon even not being aware of it!

In October 2018, Google announced a data leak of about 500,000 users via the Google+ platform. With a second breach which was discovered in December 2018, in less than 3 months, which now was a whopping 52.5 million users, Google, with plans earlier to shut down Google+ in August 2019, shuttered Google+ in the next 90 days.

In the same December 2018, US-based platform Quora too disclosed a report about the data breach of about 100 million users as a result of a malicious third party that got unauthorized access to one of the company’s systems.

Facebook & Data Security

the correct password without actually having to store the password in plain text.”- Pedro Canahuati, VP, Engineering Security & Privacy, Facebook.

Even the tech giants find it hard to manage user privacy and handle sensitive information stored in their internal storage systems.

“There is nothing more important to us than protecting people’s information, and we will continue making improvements as part of our on-going security efforts at Facebook.” – Is all Facebook could say at this time, to its users.

IT Security & Trigger

Are we even really aware of the ins and outs of every single data we upload and download? Where there go in, what happens and where do they stay? With the Social Network Sites playing a major role in connecting people and at the same time being the source of pouring everything about a person right up to his character and psychology based on the search terms, where do we people stand in understanding the technology we are using?

Let’s say, a Facebook user who was trying to upload a picture stopped it in the midway. As it’s not on the Facebook page or in the album section, the user thinks that the picture has not been uploaded yet. But, the fact is, the company saves a copy of the picture which was not even uploaded, for three days. How many of us are aware of it?

IT Security – The DMZ

Ever since the major Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data scandal in 2018, Facebook has also been receiving hard criticisms for their piracy issues and is under constant scrutiny radar in knowing how they are handling data of the millions and millions of its users and what measures are taken by them to encrypt and protect those data.

With data leaks and hackers taking the stage, the tech giants, in order to regain their users’ trust are making committed efforts to improve their security management and privacy issues. With time and with more disclosures on breaches, and with the power of magnification bad news are born with, by March 2019, Facebook disclosed that millions of its users’ passwords were stored in their internal data storage systems, in plain text, for years.

To be clear, Facebook masks the passwords of its users when a new account is created or when the password is changed by the user. They encrypt the password to avoid internal abuse of data and to defend the user’s privacy. So, in this case, even though the passwords are not visible to anyone outside Facebook and there’s no evidence of misuse of the data, it has been accessible to some 2000 internal Facebook engineers and developers, which, itself is vulnerable.

“In security terms, we ‘hash’ and ‘salt’ the passwords, including using a function called ‘scrypt’ as well as a cryptographic key that lets us irreversibly replace your actual password with a random set of characters.  With this technique, we can validate that a person is logging in with the correct password without actually having to store the password in plain text.”- Pedro Canahuati, VP, Engineering Security & Privacy, Facebook.

Even the tech giants find it hard to manage user privacy and handle sensitive information stored in their internal storage systems.

“There is nothing more important to us than protecting people’s information, and we will continue making improvements as part of our on-going security efforts at Facebook.” – Is all Facebook could say at this time, to its users.

IT Security & Trigger

Are we even really aware of the ins and outs of every single data we upload and download? Where there go in, what happens and where do they stay? With the Social Network Sites playing a major role in connecting people and at the same time being the source of pouring everything about a person right up to his character and psychology based on the search terms, where do we people stand in understanding the technology we are using?

Let’s say, a Facebook user who was trying to upload a picture stopped it in the midway. As it’s not on the Facebook page or in the album section, the user thinks that the picture has not been uploaded yet. But, the fact is, the company saves a copy of the picture which was not even uploaded, for three days. How many of us are aware of it?

IT Security – The DMZ

A formal apology, deleting the leaked photos and details, resetting the password and enable two-factor authentication, delete the personal information you’ve shared on Facebook to reduce your risk of exposure in future attacks if they were to occur!

This is all we do after data leaks. Will, that stops further breaches?

Is that all the “answers” we really are satisfied with?

Do you own a business or aiming for a startup? Do you have data and information about you, your company, your employee, and your customers and clients stored online?

Are you aware of the ins and outs of your cloud and your server?

It’s always better to have a suspicious mind. Especially, when it comes to defending your privacy, it’s always much better. For your business’s IT security and services, please contact us.

You can always write to us at: info@ascent24.io