Data Breach Prevention
A data breach is any action or subsidy that results in an individual’s personal information being accessed by an unauthorised entity, and/or when it is lost. Personal information is information regarding an individual, or any information associated with said individual. A large proportion of the information that TEAR harbours is personal data due to the nature of the work which TEAR does. As a result, a data breach within the organisation of TEAR, could result in the loss of a substantial quantity of personal information.
There are multiple levels of severity when regarding a data breach. A low level, a medium level, and finally a high level data breach. What each of these looks like will differ between organisations, but the general ideas remain the same.
1. Low Level Breach
A low level data breach is classified as a breach where organisation material, such as a laptop or paper (i.e. letter or report), is not properly disposed of or cleaned when discarded. This material has not been publicly made available, however, it has been placed in a public space, meaning it has been leaked. As a result, it is possible for an entity to acquire this data, resulting in the data breach. While a low level threat, is that, low, it has the opportunity to escalate into a medium, or even high
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This is because they are the ones that have the potential to cause the most harm to the company, and to the individuals involved. High level data breaches, some of the hardest to prevent. According to a report by the IT Governance, 4 out of the 5 top causes for high level data breaches are caused both indirectly or directly by human error. Therefore, to prevent high level threats, it’s important that employees within TEAR are constantly operating with a mindset of caution, most notably when handling any form confidential or internal
Phiprivacy.net. (n.d.). Incidents Involving Patient or Health-Related Data [Pdf file of privacy breach articles for 2008]. Retrieved from http://www.phiprivacy.net/MedicalPrivacy/Chronology_2008.pdf
A number of high profile organisations have been subjected to great reputational damage resulting from a proliferation of personal information breaches (Protecting Personal Information, 2010). Organisations have made substantial use of their customer's personal information without doing much to protect the information. Organisation's collecting personal information have had little impetus to consider the best privacy protection solutions and people have not done anything drastic to initiate such action (Loss of privacy is price one pays to live in online world, 2011). It may take strong government regulation to propel organisations in this direction (Loss of privacy is price one pays to live in online world, 2011) leading to the pending implementation of the Protection of Personal Information Bill (POPI) (POPI: Threat or opportunity, 2010:22) in South Africa.
The internet and all technological advances give us easier communication and increase productivity, however, at what cost? The loss of one's privacy. It is okay only when it is violated for one's own protection. There are different reason, good and bad, for the loss in privacy. In 1984 the characters don't have privacy due to big brother always watching,the NSA does more snooping than securing, social media does more than connect friends, and technological advances make our lives easier.
The term Whistleblower means “An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. When information is classified or otherwise restricted by Congress or Executive Order, disclosures only are protected as whistleblowing if made through designated, secure channels. (What is a Whistleblower?)” The idea behind whistleblowers is that they believe trying to inform the public of illegal acts within their businesses has the potential to protect the public from wrongdoing. The following studies analyze scholar’s findings on different factors related to whistle blowing as
The Data Protection Act 1998 places controls on the length of time, who has access, and how much personal information can be stored on an individual by organisations, businesses and the Government. Any private information must be kept secure in compliance with the law. This ensures the individual’s right to privacy and confidentiality is upheld. (Gov.uk.
About 15 million United States residents have their identities and information used fraudulently each year. Along the use of their identities, they also had a combined financial loss totaling up to almost $50 billion. Major companies such as Apple, Verizon, Target, Sony, and many more have been victims of consumer information hacking. In each of the cases, millions of consumers’ personal information has been breached. In the article “Home Depot 's 56 Million Card Breach Bigger Than Target 's” on September 18, 2014, 56 million cards were breached due to cyber attackers. Before the Home Depot attack, Target had 40 million cards breached. Company’s information is constantly being breached and the consumers’ are the ones who end up having to pay the price. If a company cannot protect the information it takes, then it should not collect the information.
On November 29th, Mary Inman gave us a talk on the topic whistleblowing, which let me know more about the whistleblower activities and the whistleblower protection. According to the definition given by the website whistleblowers international, whistleblowing is someone who reveal the unethical or illegal activities within the company. The person can be current or past employee, or an outside individual who is familiar with the unethical activity. This whistleblower does not need to be U.S. citizen.
There are many ways to prevent data breaches and the research is still going on how to prevent Data Breaches as we know that technology is always vulnerable. The most important prevention measures to Data Breaches are:
the risk of security incidents and breaches is reduced by encouraging employees to think and act in more security conscious ways;
Hacking was a term established in the 1960s. This word is the concept of unauthorised intrusion of a computer or network with malicious intentions behind them. This includes any technical effort of manipulating or damaging the normal behaviour of network connections/systems or stealing information. In this generation, hacking has become evidently significant and the debate of hacking being considered ethical or unethical arises. Therefore, will hacking ever be justified? The justification (reasonableness) of hacking has become a disputation of mixed opinions and emotions amongst society. These opinions range from hacking being considered immoral due to it being illegal activity and the vast negative impact it has on people. This includes the affirmative opinions on hacking; such as hacking being considered ethical due to the “white hat” hackers.
Confidentiality is defined as the protection of personal information. It means keeping a client’s information between the health care providers and the client. Every single patient has the right to privacy regarding their personal information from being released to anyone outside of their health care providers. Health care providers have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect all information regarding patients by not disclosing their information to anyone without their written consent from the patient.
Whistleblowing is the action of an employee, who reports any unethical violations they see or come across in the firm. Employees should be encouraged to practise whistleblowing, also, organisations should encourage them to act up against unethical behavior.
Data privacy issues arise in wide range of areas such as healthcare records, financial information, regarding genetic material in biology, geographical records, criminal justice and investigations and also in the use of
Identity theft is a non ethical criminal offence. It is when someone gathers someone’s personal information and uses it against them. Fraudsters usually get a hold of personal information using three methods: information given away, offline methods and online methods. People commit this crime for many different reasons, but they all have one common goal of using some else’s identity to their advantage. There are many different type of identity thefts, which are categorized on what the criminal is using the identity for. Having said all of this, identity is a crime that can cause a lot of finical and reputation damage to the victim and that is why it is important to prevent it. Identity theft can be prevented if everybody knows exactly what it is and what they can do to keep their identity safe.
Security is very important for many different reasons. A nation must insure their safety as a whole, as well as the persons living in the nation. It is equally important that the nation's economy is stable and growing. Security is something that every nation deals with, in many different ways. It is a way that nations come to together and create allies. However, it is also a way for nations to create enemies. There are a variety of concerns that require attention around the world including state security, human security, and economic security. Political and economic relations impact each of these security issues different proven by history and present events around the world.