Tag: cyber-security

16 billion Passwords have leaked online: We have to move towards a passcode

The age of Passwords is in its twilight years, and this recent hack showcases the need for a move towards passcodes.

Today according to Cybernews.com, they had researcher find out that massive data sets have 16 billion passwords exposed. What is more concerning is that alot of this data is new and not just a trove of passwords from other previous breaches.

We need to start moving away from passwords in my opinion. While passwords were reasonable in the past, they are too vulnerable now. It is time for change now.

How to move away from Passwords: Choose the Passcode

Microsoft and Google are attempting to move away from passwords. These titans in software have made an attempt to give their customers an ability to change over to passcodes.

Why are Passcodes better than Passwords?

In my experience, Passcodes are more convenient than having to store tons of passwords in your browser. It is a simple and easy passcode that you type in and you do not have worry about remembering them either.

Passwords are exposed in our age

Passwords can be lying in a server for 1990s websites for years. Such aged passwords can be a problem for cybersecurity in the future. Many older websites such as Yahoo and Google have userbases that are older than that of TikTok or Snapchat. The latter sites were born in a time when automatic logins using Google and Facebook accounts was more widespread than before the mid 2000s. The time is now to move towards passcodes

Hackers are getting smarter at stealing passwords

Hackers are as persistent as ever and are not going to give up now. The time is now to start thinking about moving towards passcodes. We have seen the many data breaches for many years now. Why is taking so long for us to take cybersecurity seriously? People’s identities are at stake in digital age, and we need to start taking hygiene with the at most seriousness that we take such manipulations in our system in the analog realm. It is by preventing for the future we can prevent these data breaches from affecting cyberspace too much.

Caution serves you the best on the Internet

Even after years of using the internet, people are still not able to secure their accounts. What people need to do is this: the best offense is the best defense. The best offense in this situation is taking charge of your own cyber hygiene. Make sure you have passwords that are hard to crack, and you do not post any personal information online. However, the best way to secure your accounts is to transition towards passcodes to secure your information online so you can rest assured your actions on the internet will be under your sovereignty as a citizen.

The Oracle Hack and its refusal to take responsbility.

It is yet another day in the Oracle Hacking crisis. The company is not interested in taking any responsibility for its actions. The inability to stop the hack or even responsibility is a big issue that the government should be investigating here. While one can say that Oracle is not an omnipotent company, they still need to be aware that security matters. The company is wasting its time by not responding to the complaints.

Oracle has to understand that it’s reputation is at stake here and action must be taken to restore confidence.

I am not a cyber security expert but everyday there seems to be more hacks and break ins by hackers.

Oracle needs to take this seriously and give the right response to their customers.

With the Lazarus Group from Kim Jong Un’s North Korea stealing crypto and this hack, something has to change.

What can change?

I think that educating people on cyber security should be in schools. Too often, it seen as an easy class in high school and in college. When I went to George Mason University, IT class was seen as a burden by students. It is time that perception changes. Even after all these years of computer education, many students are not serious about applying it. Computer programming is back in the realm of the nerds, and it is not seen as interesting by students.

Such classes should have classes on how to be aware of phishing attacks or malware. Too many times we are seeing the older folks on the internet being manipulated by social engineering emails.

Replace Passwords with Passcodes

Replacing passwords with passcodes is another way that cybersecurity can be improved on the internet. I have recently been using my browser to save passwords as there are too many to remember. Such passwords, even when strong, are not enough to deter hackers. We need to have stronger protections from hackers. Passcodes could be the solution. There are too many stories of people having passwords which are basically just 123, which is not conducive for secure sites.

Taking action takes time and some people are just unable to pay attention to the cyber realm with any seriousness.

Another thing that needs to happen is that we need to upgrade our servers and computers. America is going through a building boom in data centers. Maintaining such centers and upgrading them when appropriate will be vital in making sure our cyber infrastructure is sparkling new and ready for any challenges.

Oracle can take the step towards revitalization of America’s cyberspace. They can start by being honest and upgrading their systems so they are secure.

The Oracle Healthcare hack and implications for Cybersecurity in America

It seems like not a single day goes by without someone hacking into another system in the country. Oracle, one of America’s most important information technology companies has had a huge hacking incident occur early in this year. Even though North Korea’s skilled hackers have already stolen hundreds of millions of crypto, there are hackers who already saying: hold my beer.

According to an article written on TechRadar, Oracle is now admitting the servers of a company that they acquired in 2022 had been hacked and medical records were copied to an external location. The company has been undergoing many attacks recently, however, this one is causing ripples across the health IT sphere in America.

Cybersecurity is generally speaking seen as a boring sphere in the news. The only time that it gets any attention is when there Crypto in the title. The chaos involving Crypto is why the industry has the reputation that has now. The media loves having chaos in the industry in order to scare people, but the crypto people are still attempting to get their money in there, confident that it will change the culture of banking in the West.

However, cybersecurity is increasingly becoming more of an issue in Healthcare. The push for electronic medical records was sold as a way of making healthcare more efficient. However, it is clear that there is a cost to it. While people may not want to go through papers of medical records like in the past, these systems have to be maintained and protected against threats.

In spite of the usage of the internet since the early 1990s, many companies are still seemingly incompetent at preventing lone hackers or teams of hackers from stealing information or even attacking healthcare systems. While this race seems like a whack and mole game, hackers seem to have the edge more and more.

The issue that Oracle faces right now is that they were not honest about the hacking attacks on the healthcare clients. They basically stated they were not hacked and now there is information they are attempting to help those same clients with this issue. Oracle should have been honest but instead they decided to chose secrecy. In the case of a major hack as this, transparency is a virtue. While some companies may not want to reveal such incompetency, it is important the IT sector be able to relate to the average person.

The hack and its effects will continue to ripple through the industry and America. We shall see what it means for cybersecurity.

However, one thing is clear here.

The black hat hackers have an advantage here. Considering their lack of morality and inclination towards breaking rules, they are in some ways embracing the internet’s chaos.

Unlike on the regular television or even the printed pages of magazines, newspapers or books, the internet is a liminal space filled with information, videos and images. To the hacker, he is like the descendant of the pirates of the Golden Age in those years in the 1710s and 1720s. This time however, he is in a society which is unable to comprehend his actions.

The hacker to some is a romantic rogue. Chaos for chaos sake, tussling with the sellout white hats who get government paychecks is a high ideal to the black hat hackers.

This constant battle between the black hats and white hats isn’t as binary as it seems but in the realm of big companies, it is an arms race of people tapping away at their computers.

Oracle needs to understand that people are only going to be questioning the cyber landscape even more. What was once an interesting place to buy things and look at images has become a space of war between multiple factions all with their own beliefs and biases. Being honest about the hack is important and can motivate other companies to not hide behind spokespersons but be reliable and amicable to the public.