Major data breaches seem to be occurring more and more frequently, and we have some huge names on the list of impacted companies this week, including the US Government, Toyota, and Intel. We were also concerned with services in our hospitals and our schools being breached, giving up patient, student, and teacher data in the process through the breach of companies like SchoolDude and NextGen Healthcare.
Inquisitive minds are curious and seek out new knowledge, asking questions that will receive detailed answers. Anyone who considers themselves inquisitive should avoid the “Dark Web” or approach with extreme caution. The Internet is more complex by the hour, with nearly two billion websites and growing, the average user accesses only about ten percent of this massive resource.
Over centuries, harassment has been rooted in the global human condition. Modern America continues to grapple with intimidation, sexual abuse, bullying, and much more, all of which have severe implications for the victims. Ignoring the root causes of one person maliciously targeting another as a lower part of society is morally wrong. Persistent and unwanted targeting has been inflamed in recent decades by the worsening of fundamental human rights.
SchoolDude is a cloud-based work management tool for school districts and other organizations throughout the United States. This software service is used by school employees and students to submit repair requests and manage those same requests. The software is used to handle serious repairs in schools all over, and it also manages some confidential data about employees. This information was just released in a serious data breach that included more than 3 million user accounts.
Intel is an American-based corporation that offers technology products and services to much of the world. The massive corporation employs tens of thousands of individuals and generates approximately 63 billion USD in annual revenue. The tech giant handles a significant amount of data for customers and employees, and some of that data was recently exposed in an MSI data breach.
Toyota is a worldwide car manufacturer based in Toyota City, Japan. This automaker produces millions of vehicles each year, and many of those vehicles had their locations publicly available for as long as ten years. If you drive a Toyota vehicle, your location may have been available to anyone interested in seeing it, all because of a cloud configuration mistake. This mistake compromised the privacy of over 2 million Toyota car owners and is a serious hit to Toyota's name and reputation.
The US Government employs more than 1.8 million individuals, and a large group of those employees was recently exposed by a serious data breach. This breach impacted government employees that use the TRANServe transit benefits program from the government to cover some of their commuting costs to and from work. Over 237,000 current and past members of the program were exposed during this breach.
From the beginning of the computer revolution, there has been a smorgasbord of devices and peripherals, with some DOA and others innovative and groundbreaking. Thumb drives or USB Flash Drives were created in the early 80s, with the first commercially available drive holding 128MG. Cutting-edge USB drives of today hold 20Terabytes and up.
Protection methods for sensitive data have evolved to encompass new forms of thinking to combat constant threat vectors and attacks. Protecting against malware, brute force attacks, and malicious code, data engineers at Cisco, Microsoft, and others craft unique methods to counter the never-ending aggression. Data Masking and data encryption are two similar technologies with different characteristics, purpose, and technique.
Major companies have suffered serious data breaches this week, and even the city of Dallas, Texas, was hacked and damaged by data attacks that could expose a significant number of people, making it clear that everyone is at risk when it comes to identity theft and data attacks specifically. Huge mental health organizations like Brightline and Mcpherson Hospital exposed confidential patient data, and even the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City was the target of a breach attack this week.
