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Security Guide

from anthem to anathema

Have you ever lost your smartphone, even just for Internet users want easy access to more and more data.
an hour or two? If so, you probably recall the wave of panic Unfortunately, the downside to greater accessibility is that it
that set in when you thought it might be gone forever. Losing becomes more accessible to hackers too.
any digital device can be extremely troubling for a number In early 2015, Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. re-
of reasons. First, mobile devices and laptops are not cheap. ported a security breach resulting in the loss of roughly 80
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The thought of spending hundreds of dollars, or even a million customer accounts. Hackers stole sensitive account
couple thousand dollars in the case of a laptop, to replace data like names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and
the lost device is distressing. However, what often creates the salaries. While any nationally publicized security breach
most panic is the thought of the person now possessing your will cause concern, especially in light of the recent trend in
device finding a way to access all of your data. breaches with the Target and Home Depot incidents, Anthem
If you were to lose a digital device, what data would you customers became more and more irate as details about the
be most concerned about—banking data, email archives, so- nature of the breach were reported. Anthem eventually dis-
cial media accounts, your collection of photos, or something closed that the account data stolen had been stored in plain
else? There is no right or wrong answer to this question, and text—not encrypted. This meant that hackers could immedi-
responses vary from person to person. However, what is cer- ately begin selling the data on the black market or using it for
tain is the likelihood that in the future someone will access other nefarious purposes.
your personal data. The frustrating part is that in most Security experts criticized Anthem for not encrypting
cases, the culprits will not even need physical access to your sensitive customer account data. Numerous clients considered
smartphone or laptop. Your data
can be stolen just as easily from a
company storing it in the cloud.
Don’t believe it? Just ask anyone
covered by Anthem health care in
February 2015.

Cloudy with a Chance
of Theft
More and more data are being
stored in the cloud. Why? Because
data storage costs have plum-
meted and Internet access has be-
come faster and cheaper. In 1990,
1 million transistors cost $527,
a gigabyte of storage cost $569,
and a gigabit per second of band-
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width cost $1,245. But today
1 million transistors cost $0.05,
a gigabyte of storage costs $0.02,
and a gigabit per second of band-
width costs $15.
Source: BillionPhotos.com/Fotolia
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