Cyberattack surge may be the new normal
Publication Date: 02/03/15
Source: TheStar.com
Our growing connectedness — along with “simple cluelessness” — giving hackers an edge that’s only likely to get worse.
Bell Canada, French mobile operator Orange and U.S. hotel management firm White Lodging are among the latest targets of cyber attacks that are growing exponentially in an ever more connected world.
Experts say breaches of corporate data bases have ramped up thanks to factors such as the rise of third-party or cloud storage, the proliferation of open-source smartphones, and the advance of banking and other financial transactions across mobile platforms.
Add in increasingly sophisticated hacking tools and more brute computing power and the result is an easier road for criminals aiming to breach protected data, said Queen’s University professor David Skillicorn.
While the average business or consumer is more capable of countering cyber attacks today compared to a decade ago, Skillicorn said the hackers remain a few steps ahead.
He also blamed the “simple cluelessness” of such practices as maintaining default password settings for many data compromises, although Kaan Yigit, president of Toronto-based consulting firm Solutions Research Group, said more breaches are happening “because more and more of our lives and money is online”. Read more >>
