What's up with all this data breaches and leaks?

In my experience, it’s always been this bad. However, as the world becomes more connected, it becomes easier to find systems to break into and easier to find ways to break in. It’s only recently that most countries have enacted legislation to enforce mandatory reporting of data breaches, and so we hear more about them.

Cyber security has always been (and probably always will be) an arms race between those who want to secure data and those who want to steal it. As the value and usefulness of data goes up, so does the desire of the bad guys to steal it. Identity theft and just plain ransoming of data are only ever going to increase.

Use:

• a password manager
• a different random password or pass phrase for every site
• a different random email address for each site (Apple’s “Hide my Email”; Firefox Relay; DuckDuckGo mail; 33mail, for example)
• different false details as much as possible for every site

Don’t:

• Use the same details (name, password, email address) on every site
• use your real details if you can possibly avoid it. If you must, misspell your details (“Johhn Smith”, “1 Maiin Street”) so that you can track the misuse of your data.