By For the past few days, I’ve been getting emails from my subscriptions warning me that their system has been hacked and that my email address has been opened up to potential spam. Although these emails are helpful, it leads me to wonder about the safety of general information on the Internet.
From the days of dial-up to high speed Internet access everywhere, our need for technology has greatly proliferated. But with it, people have become careless about the information that they post.
For instance, log on to Facebook and look at all the information that people have listed about themselves, plus all of the pictures that they have linked to their profile. As the Internet grows and programs advance, the pictures that people have posted will be able to be searched to find their location. Their comments can be scanned for keyword and the Internet immediately becomes a less-private venue for communication.
A common question could be: What to do about these changes? Well, it’s fairly simple, limit the information that you make available on the web. By doing a few things:
- Don’t ever give anyone over the Internet private information
- Carefully select which items you post
- Teach the younger generations that they need to be weary of what they post
Overall, the Internet is a great tool, that has allowed for International communication to grow. However, being careful is the only way to protect yourself from potential hackers.
With this Epsilon hack, users are warned to not open any unfamiliar links on emails and to not send money through unknown venues. Beyond this, users should make sure that they know where they are subscribed, and contemplate unsubscribing from needless subscriptions.
