Recently Dell detected unathorised attempts on its network to extract customer information limited to names, email addresses and hashed passwords, fortunately this attempt was thwarted and disrupted before any information was taken by the hackers.

However while there could be some information was removed from Dell’s network, further investigations found no conclusive evidence that any was extracted. Additionally, the company has in place  cybersecurity measures to limit the impact of any potential exposure including the hashing of customers’ passwords and a mandatory password reset. The company stated that credit card and other sensitive customer information was not targeted.

We will live in an age of data, and for the unscrupulous this has become a trade-able commodity, we expect large corporation that store our information to have the most sophisticated technology to safeguard our data, but looking at recent incidents, what is clear is that the bad guys are winning the most of the battle.

Time for individuals to take ownership of their data and use measures to protect their information, making it difficult for data thieves to use them even if they manage to acquire. Change passwords regularly, use different passwords for accounts, if device has biometric security system…use them, and look out for new ways to secure yourself.