Computer Security Breaches Web New

Question: Discuss about the Computer Security Breaches Web New. Answer: web for news on computer security breaches The problem of computer security breaches is increasing day by day. The main reason for this problem is lack of appropriate security and privacy of data that is stored into computer systems and shared over different networks. Here we will emphasize on a case of computer security breach that occurred in 2015. Under this discussion, the main problem, why it occurred and what are the possible solutions for this problem will be discussed in detail. News about Data Breach costs Comcast In news of data breaches, case of Comcast Company cannot be ignored. It is a company in United States of America. Due to a big data breach, Comcast Company has agreed to pay a fine of $33 million to customers who are involved in posting their personal information online. There were near about 75000 customers who affected by this big data breach and their personal information got public. The affected customers paid $1.50 a month for keeping their data secure and private to Comcast. According to statement of California Attorney, the violation of privacy of consumers will result in significant penalties and leaking of customers data was a trouble breach of privacy (Checkmarx, 2017). What was the Problem The computer security breach of Comcast Company was held on September 17, 2015. The problem is that personal information of Comcasts customers that was stored in Comcasts database, has hacked by hackers and also made public. Comcast provides so much security to its customers information, but still this computer breach has occurred due to improper usage of security and privacy tools and lack of usage of advanced security techniques and policies (PCWorld, 2017). How and why did security breach occur The root cause of this problem of Comcast Companys security breach is the online posting of personal information of customers that includes names, phone numbers and addresses of customers (Tech Times, 2017). These customers are those who have paid to have voice-over-internet protocol, numbers unlisted and VoIP. The publishing of personal information that should have been unlisted is considered unlawful and it leads to trouble of security breach of privacy and security. Similar thing has happened in case of Comcast Company. Due to lack of security and privacy of data, it has become easier for hackers to hack confidential information from databases or network (LIFARS, 2017). Possible Solutions As we have discussed above, how computer security breach has happened in Comcast Company and due to this potential customers of this company has faced issues that their confidential. Information became public. In this case, it has become necessary for Comcast Company to find possible solutions to resolve this issue of security breach. Following are some possible solutions for handling issues of computer security breach (Morgan, 2017). First of all it is necessary for Comcast Company to improve handling of complaints of customers regarding security of data and vendor use of data. Another possible solution is that Comcast Company has to provide explanation that how unlisted number and personal data are used (com, 2017). All computer systems that are connected with network must have anti-virus in it. Anti-virus helps to control entry of virus into system and if virus finds then fix it successfully. In this way, the virus attacks such as malware and others can be controlled by using advanced anti-virus solutions (Perlroth, 2017). The login credentials that are used by customers for their online accounts must be in encrypted form while stored into database. Encryption is form of cryptography and data in this form is hard to guess. Comcasts security experts should careful about this security technique and must use this while storing data into database. Besides above solutions, it is necessary for Comcast Company to make good security policies and order employees to follow them strictly. The no proper implementation of security policies and companys rules also lead to negative results and chances of security issues are increased (McGoogan, 2017). These are some possible solutions that Comcast Company should implement to resolve issue of privacy and security issues. According to analysis about possible solutions of Comcast Company, it is found that some solutions have already executed in Comcast, but expected outcomes did not get. It means more efforts are required to get full security and privacy of data. Now management of Comcast Company has provided assurance to customers that they are improving their activities to provide much better security to their information and company has already reached to a settlement with the California Public Utilities Commissions and Attorney General of California that brings this matter closure. Like Comcast Company, there are various other companies exist that have already encountered this kind of security and privacy issues. Those companies can also implement above listed solutions to resolve their security problems. Research about popular hack case In this segment of report, we will discuss a popular case of hacking on the web that happened between 2012 and 2016. Here we have selected a case of Yahoo Hack. This incident occurred in December, 2016. This incident is considered biggest data breach of history. As we know that Yahoo is a well-known company that provides telecommunication and other internet services. The Yahoo messenger is also popular among people worldwide. The hacking case of Yahoo was unexpected for its users and management. Now here we will emphasize on hacking case of Yahoo in detail. News about Yahoo Hacking It is admitted by Yahoo that company was hit with the worlds largest cyber-attack that involves breach of customer data. The result of this hacking was losing of personal details and passwords of one billion accounts. What was the Problem According to analysis we got to know that Yahoo got back hacked data in month of November. The information is analyzed by experts of external computer forensics and from this analysis it is confirmed that data is associated with one billion accounts that was hacked in previous years. These one billion accounts include confidential information of names, email addresses. Telephone numbers, hashed passwords and date of birth. This whole information was jumbled and harder to read as compare to plain text. There were also some cases when security questions and answers were also taken. But the stolen information did not include payment or bank account details, because that were stored in a separate system (IdentityForce, 2017). Who were affected and how According to further study about case of Yahoo, it is found that around 3 billion users on the internet and significant numbers of people i.e. one billion were affected due to this attack. These are not small number of people who have affected. Although financial information of customers is secured but still account holders are at risk that they can be targeted by fraudsters those are looking for financial details or any other information. If the combination of stolen passwords and data will be used again by customers then it is possible that hackers can use that to log into other websites. Besides this, phishing attacks are implemented by hackers to target with phishing attacks (McGoogan, 2017). How was attack carried out There was one vulnerable way that is used by hackers to implement this attack i.e. hacking. Through hacking hackers have tried to access confidential information of Yahoos customers from database of this company. The main thing here is stored data is in scrambled form and very hard to understand. But still hackers stole that data. It means security is not properly applied. Besides this, it will be better for Yahoo to use cryptography to maintain security of data. In case of cryptography, encryption technique can be used. This technique encrypts information in unreadable form that is hard to understand by hackers and it is considered better than jumbled of words (Kinney, S., Kinney, 2017). Prevention from Attack As we have discussed above issue of computer security breach that has faced by Yahoo Company, why and how it has happened. From above discussion it is cleared that this hacking attack is vulnerable and must be controlled by company. Here in this segment of report, we will discuss ways that are implemented by Yahoo to get rid of this problem and must be implemented by Yahoo and other companies (Recode, 2017). The first way to get prevention from above discussed attack is to use encryption technique to encrypt data before storing into database. This is an effective way to store data in secure way and chances of hacking data will be reduced. Yahoo security experts should use this technique. (com, 2017) Another way to get prevention from hacking is to manage authorization of users of database in which every data or information is stored. It means login credentials such as username and passwords should be strong and should be stored in encrypted form into database. The access of database should be provided to administration and no other person should be able to access that database without permission (Perlroth, 2017). The security policies of company also matter. If security policy will be effective and followed by all employees of company then issues of hacking or security breaches can be resolved. Besides above listed security techniques, Yahoo is also doing another efforts after occurring of this hacking incident. This company has decided to notify its customers those are affected by this incident and prompt them to secure their accounts on the behalf of some measures such as changing passwords. All unencrypted security questions will be considered now invalid and new ones security questions will be added in encrypted form. The cookie forging hack has also blocked by Yahoo. Therefore, these above listed ways are used by Yahoo Company to resolve problem of hacking. There are million users who have used Yahoo and made accounts on it by providing their personal information to company. Therefore, it is accountability of Yahoo towards its potential customers to provide them full security and privacy. Conclusion After this whole discussion about computer security breaches and hacking issues, we can say that if these issues will be controlled on time then security and privacy of information can be maintained for long time by business organizations. But if proper security tools and techniques will not be implemented by its users then issues of hacking, phishing and identity theft etc. can encountered. It is responsibility of the users and developers to maintain security of data at their own levels. References Checkmarx.(2017). August 2016 Hacks: 8 of the Largest Hacks, Breaches and Cyber Incidents. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.checkmarx.com/2016/09/11/august-2016-hacks-8-largest-hacks-breaches-cyber-incidents/ PCWorld.(2017). The 10 biggest hacks, breaches, and security stories of 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.pcworld.com/article/3152367/security/the-10-biggest-hacks-breaches-and-security-stories-of-2016.html Kinney, S., Kinney, S. (2017). Comcast data breach to cost $33 million. RCR Wireless News. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.rcrwireless.com/20150924/big-data-analytics/comcast-data-breach-costs-33-million-tag17 LIFARS.(2017). Comcast Slapped with a $33 Million Fine over Data Breach. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://lifars.com/2015/09/comcast-slapped-with-a-33-million-fine-over-data-breach/ Morgan, L. (2017). Data breach costs Comcast $33million. IT Governance USA Blog. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.itgovernanceusa.com/blog/data-breach-costs-comcast-33million/ McGoogan, C. (2017). Yahoo hack: What you need to know about the biggest data breach in history. The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/12/15/yahoo-hack-need-know-biggest-data-breach-history/ Recode. (2017). Yahoos head lawyer is taking the fall for its hacking, while CEO Marissa Mayer is getting her pay docked. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.recode.net/2017/3/1/14783686/yahoos-lawyer-ousted-hacking-marissa-mayer-pay-docked Perlroth, V. (2017). Yahoo Says 1 Billion User Accounts Were Hacked. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/technology/yahoo-hack.html?_r=0 Ft.com.(2017). Yahoo hacking what you need to know. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.ft.com/content/266aa154-8165-11e6-8e50-8ec15fb462f4McGoogan, C. (2017). Yahoo hack: What you need to know about the biggest data breach in history. The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/12/15/yahoo-hack-need-know-biggest-data-breach-history/ Tech Times.(2017). Biggest Data Breaches And Hacks Of 2016: Yahoo Data Breach, DNC Hacking, And More. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.techtimes.com/articles/190021/20161225/biggest-data-breaches-and-hacks-of-2016-yahoo-data-breach-dnc-hacking-and-more.htm Fortune.com.(2017). Yahoo Got Hacked Big Time: What You Need to Know. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://fortune.com/2016/09/22/yahoo-hack-qa/ IdentityForce. (2017). 2016 Data Breaches. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.identityforce.com/blog/2016-data-breaches Perlroth, N. (2017). Yahoo Says Hackers Stole Data on 500 Million Users in 2014. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/technology/yahoo-hackers.html