Some time back, Facebook suffered yet another data breach. So did Twitter.
This year, Facebook’s contact importer feature is a great way to bring friends on social media, but it also gives hackers an opportunity. Hackers were able to steal private information by getting access through this method! The data leak exposed the personal information of millions of users, including passwords and email addresses. They also gained access to social security numbers for some people that may have used a weak spot in their system- an issue malicious actors were able to get around by using pre-recorded speech patterns which allowed them full control over someone’s account without being identified themselves.
Similarly. 2018 was an interesting year for crypto enthusiasts and scam artists alike. Scammers began imitating Elon Musk, the noted cryptocurrency enthusiast who happens to be a rich tech entrepreneur in his own right- impersonating him by using his profile photo as well as selecting similar usernames on Twitter. They then tweeted out offers of quick cash with no strings attached: all you’d need to do is send them some Bitcoin (or another virtual currency), which they’d return double or triple of what was sent back!
What Danger Do These Data Hacks Pose?
Of course, Elon Musk’s was the first account to get hacked.
But, it turns out that among all these high profile names, there was also Jeff Bezos, the corporate accounts of Apple and Uber, pop star Kanye West, as well as the 44th President of America – Barack Obama.
And while these scams might sound too good, the data that is stolen can be used by hackers to make calls, send spam emails, mount phishing campaigns, and more. They can also use it for nefarious online schemes, such as impersonating users and transferring cash on their behalf without them knowing what happened; all this could easily happen through the compromised accounts!
What Can We Learn From These Fiascos?
Three things we learned from 2018: one, at least some people fell for the scam every single time — certainly enough to incentivize further attempts. Two, Twitter was slow to respond and allowed this issue to go on well beyond their initial comments that they were taking it seriously; the three biggest takeaway is how much power scammers have over us when there’s no way of fighting back!
Facebook has also made a big change in how it is handling security. For one thing, the company says that instead of having its own separate teams for this work like before; now all members can be found working closely with product development departments across Facebook to make sure there are no holes left behind when developing new products or updating existing ones.
The question is not which security technologies companies like Twitter can implement to protect themselves, but whether it’s economically feasible for them and their users. Fixing this requires two things: regulating these businesses by making sure they’re spending a majority of profits on safety measures; reducing the monopoly power that gives hackers more incentive than anyone else in protecting yours truly with access controls.
The lack of accountability combined with the absence of any regulations has allowed these tech giants to create a situation where they can decide on your level of security and privacy. If you’re offered options, it’s because someone at one of these companies thought that was what would be best suited for YOU! There isn’t much transparency either; in fact most people don’t even know how many accounts there actually are out there until their passwords get hacked into something more than just words anymore.
The Internet was once a thriving marketplace of ideas. But now, the tech giants have created an environment where users can’t escape their microscope glare and there is no room for competition in this field – their size makes them too powerful with all that they’ve got at hand: social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter; online stores like Amazon; search engines like… Well, the list goes on! It doesn’t matter whether these companies are handling personal matters (security risks) or national ones because when you combine everything together into one entity then things get pretty dangerous – especially considering how much influence these businesses actually hold over our daily lives nowadays.
Competition is how our economy works; it’s what keeps companies in check and forces them to innovate. Monopolies can do whatever they want, even if it harms people along the way.
Final Word
We have all been critical of the tech industry before, but maybe this will serve as a wake-up call. It’s time we start holding them accountable for their inaction and negligence in fixing online security problems that have repeatedly leaked out information without authorization to millions worldwide – something much more serious than any PR nightmare resulting from having your account hacked!
