2013 was the year of data theft

In 2013 there were more data thefts and other cyber crimes committed thane ever before – reports belepes.hu. One of the biggest data theft victims was US retail chain Target: a group of unknown hackers stole more than 40 million debit and credit card details from them. Such data theft isn’t only a problem because having the PIN codes thieves can steal billions of dollars from customers, but also because they can use the data to manufacture fake cards and withdraw money from ATMs, too. From Adobe 2.9 million users’ personal and financial data were stolen last year. In 2013 hackers’ main targets were security companies. Celebrities weren’t safe from hackers’ attacks either: they broke into CorporateCarOnline and published data (names, addresses, passwords, credit card numbers) belonging to celebrities such as Tom Hanks or Donald Trump. Last year’s biggest data theft scandal was caused by Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information about the National Security Agency of the USA running surveillance programmes all over the world. What can we do to protect our data? We can use passwords combined of capital and lowercase letters and numbers. We should also use different passwords for different accounts. As for protecting our systems, it is enough to have an efficient firewall and good antivirus software, but we also have dozens of other opportunities to make sure we don’t become victims of data theft