Private Sector Cyber Compromises

I believe the government needs to do something regarding the internet and I do appreciate the President’s concerns over our privacy. I also think this issue will not be easy to resolve as both the private and government sectors have been compromised. Since the Republicans want the private sector to take the lead I’m giving the reports of the last few months regarding them first. 

In October 2011 it was reported that a 35 year old Florida man used deductive reasoning from information gathered in magazines and online to hack celebrity Yahoo, Google and Apple accounts. On December 26 we heard that the hacker group ‘Anonymous’ took credit for taking thousands of high profile client’s credit card numbers and personal information from global intelligence security think tank Stratfor in the name of charity; currently up to $1 million has been taken and they promised that it was just the beginning, receipts posted by the hackers show that they donated money to the Red Cross and Save the Children foundation who don’t get to keep money because it was stolen; officials said the information wasn’t encrypted. On February 3, 2012 we also heard that the computer security firm Verisign fell victim to hackers and that ‘Anonymous’ had taken on the Church of Scientology and crashed the websites of Visa and MasterCard because they wouldn’t process contributions to WikiLeaks. On February 17 we heard Google is in hot water because it has been using a special code to bypass the Safari privacy web browser on phones and IPads and tracking peoples’ habits. (Don’t forget my January 19, 2012-Internet Laws blog said online retailer Zappos.com said hackers accessed 24 million accounts and have the passwords which could jeopardize other accounts of their customers; a recent survey found that 90% of all companies said they’ve been hacked at one time or other.)

I already talked about the guns (April 30, 2012-Guns in the US) and China selling fake IDs (November 10, 2011- Foreign Agenda) being sold on the internet and John Hinckley living in a mental hospital used the internet (December 15, 2011-Demons) as well as prisoners (April 19, 2012-Civil Rights vs Justice). And, you’re probably aware that Craig’s List was used to commit rape, murder and the hijacking of people’s property (most recent was the November 27 report regarding a Craig’s List help wanted ad for a caretaker for a southern Ohio farm that resulted in 3 known people dead). In addition to these on December 30-6 Los Angeles, California (CA) men were indicted for an internet-based car selling scheme. On February 15 it was reported that the British notified the Food and Drug Administration that the cancer drug Avastin (in CA, Texas and Illinois) was being counterfeited (contained no cancer fighting drug) by an overseas supplier with a French label; this is not the first time – Lipitor in 2003 and the internet is full of fake drugs like Tamiflu and the diet drug Alli. We’re told the drugs from pharmacies are fine as they’re purchased from licensed suppliers. On March 25 we heard that stay at home jobs offered on the internet are 60 to 1 a scam – if you’re sent a check or money order and the company tells you to deposit it into your account, keep a portion and wire the rest to the company; if you don’t wait until the check or money order clears and it bounces you’re liable for the full amount of the check and out the money you sent to the company. On March 27 Whip-it (Nitrous-oxide known as laughing gas) that has a stated use for making whip cream and and being used by dentists is being sold on the internet to an estimated 12 million people for getting high (age and purpose are not asked); the effects are dangerous if used for purposes other than those stated; the law is hard to enforce and sales are rising.

It appears to me that the private sector is using the internet for its own benefits. And, if 90% of the private sector companies are being hacked, including 2 security firms, we need to think about how safe would our information would be in their hands. 

Tomorrow I’ll talk about what the government has been doing.