Barbados Underground published a post on September 3, 2015, titled Understanding Internet Data Privacy: What should you know and expect
The internet has become the most prominent source of communication and information. Hence, the information which is shared on the internet must be protected to uphold information privacy. With the rise in cyber-crime in the region, employing strategies to protect information has now become an everyday reality which is only getting worst. Therefore, individuals must understand how their data is being stored, manipulated and protected.
Key points:
- Data privacy (or data protection) is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, and the legal and political issues surrounding them.
- Data breaches are nameless, faceless crimes, as compared to the more tradition crimes. This lack of understanding has made it difficult for much regional public and private sector leaders to grasp its impact on regional economic stability and development. In simple terms, as data moves across the internet, the responsibility for the protection of that data is shared by various system owners across a wide range of Internet infrastructure, data storage platforms, and connections.
- Caribbeans, unfortunately, provide personal data online without consideration for the legitimacy or security posture of the online requestor. Additionally, more of us are using the internet to perform important business and financial transactions on home or work PC with a lack of consideration for whether the Internet device being used has been updated appropriately from the operating system and anti-virus protection perspectives.
- Depending on the tools used, it can take a hacker just minutes to identify weaknesses or vulnerabilities across an entire range of business, organizational or government systems. Likewise, for the typical home PC/mobile device, system weaknesses or vulnerabilities can be identified in seconds.
- When your data has submitted, stored and maintained by businesses, organizations and governments, there is an expectation of data privacy. Unfortunately, despite a significant rise in cyber-crime activity in the Caribbean many public and private sector businesses, organizations and government leaders are failing to proactively invest in the implementation of international best practices and standards for data protection.
- Much of today’s IT management focus on data protection has been from the Internet-facing side of the equation. However, if you take a look at a few of the major globally reported data breaches very often, they occur as the result of the “insider threat”, where employees with access to sensitive or private data intentionally or unintentionally disclose/misuse it.
- From the unintentional perspective, ineffective, inadequate, or non-existent roles-based IT security awareness training is often one of the main root causes of many data breaches.
Reference: barbadosunderground.net – understand internet data privacy what should you know and expect
Contributed by: Kyle Sterling from Jamaica. Kyle is a member of the CCST Discord group from the G5 Cyber Security Foundation Ltd. Learn more about CCST (Caribbean Cyber Support Team) by visiting caribbeancst.org. CCST is a collaborative group on the Discord platform for Caribbean people in IT, from beginners to experts.