In what is described as the biggest violation against a single agency taxation in the United States, some credit card numbers 387000 and 3.6 million social security numbers were compromised by cyber criminals who managed to hack into computer systems and retrieve details for all residents South Carolina, past and present who filed a tax return since 1998.
Following an investigation, it was revealed that the attacks were sometimes launched at the end of August and were discovered 10 October.
Fortunately for most residents of South Carolina, the majority of credit card numbers were protected by strong encryption mechanisms. However, about 16,000 were left plain and were therefore open to illegally use once in the wrong hands.
Although state officials have defended the error, indicating that the attack could have happened to anyone, others disagree. Michael Huhns, President of Engineering Insurance Information Service Center at the University of South Carolina, said the failure was "inexcusable" and that residents of South Carolina have a right to be surprised and upset at violation.
While the attack was unprecedented in terms of its size and the target, hacks larger scale were conducted on the websites of private companies before, with 213 systems in total already failed to States States this year. These new and recent stories revealing the extent of identity theft in the UK, should be food for thought for all those concerned about the vulnerability of their computer, phone or network 'business.
One of the best ways to protect your information when connecting to the Internet is to use a virtual private network, or VPN. A virtual private network allows you to hide all traffic - including the IP address of the user - anyone who might happen to espionage, which means users can browse with reduced fear of them or their customers, the details being stolen. First against threats of data and identity theft, a VPN connection is also affordable and manageable as it is effective.
0 Komentar