Hackers, Hacking and Should You Care?

For those who follow IT security news, not a day goes by where we do not learn of yet another security breach, virus outbreak or some other attack.  Several high profile cases come to mind.  There is the U.S. Army soldier who copied confidential data off of a server and gave the information to Wikileaks.  The Sony PlayStation network, earlier this year, had to be taken offline after hackers stole user information.  RSA Security, best known for their security tokens, suffered a breach of highly sensitive data and set in motion a chain of events that would later lead to the subsequent breach of U.S. defense contractor Lockheed-Martin.

Should the average person take notice or even care of such events?  The reality is yes, you should care.  Having been in the industry since the dark ages (pre-Windows), I have seen all manner of problems related to computer security.  I know people who have had their identity stolen, had to replace credit cards due to security issues with merchants in other countries or had their email accounts stolen and used to request money.  A simple computer virus can shut down entire corporate networks, disrupting financial transactions and customer services. MORE