In the News
Prominent US companies including Apple and Amazon may have been compromised by international efforts. In Chinese Spying Chips Found Hidden On Servers Used By US Companies, Mohit Kumar at The Hacker News discusses the discovery of a supply chain attack which implanted surveillance chips into the devices of almost 30 companies including while they were being manufactured in China. Such surveillance chips were believed to have been used by the Chinese government to spy on US companies through the implanted chips. It is important to note that Amazon denies that such an attack occurred, while Apple announced their discovery of such technology in 2015.
Our Take
Data privacy is a hot topic in society and consumer confidence in data security is wavering. With all of the issues involving data misuse at Facebook and other applications companies, information regarding potential data exposure through espionage is especially concerning, yet possibly not surprising for many. While some of the suspected companies affected have acknowledged the espionage activity, others have denied it, and this lack of transparency leaves many consumers unconvinced that their data with these companies are safe. The implementation of such espionage efforts, if they did occur, stresses the importance of secure supply chain manufacturing and better oversight of outsourced production. In order to protect sensitive company information and customer information, security needs to be a bigger priority in the eyes of large corporations.
Recommendations
How can you protect your privacy in the wake of security breaches and hacks?
- Understand the risks of putting your personal information into the world, and only share what you have to
- Minimize the number of accounts that have direct access to your bank account or card numbers
- Don’t reuse your account passwords, and take advantage of multi-factor authentication where possible.
- Pay special attention to sharing settings: ask yourself who has access to the content you are posting?
- Always back up important data on an external device
- Stay up to date on news regarding recent fraud and phishing attacks to see if you may have been affected