2014 may best be known as the year of the hacker. Most prominent has been the hacking of Sony, causing personal emails to be shared, a movie to be denied, and threats to be held on management. And most recently, Sony's Playstation network and Microsoft's XBox network have both been hacked as well, resulting in an overloading of those systems. Gamers are furious and we can all fear that 2015 will consist of even more cyber security problems.
The simple truth is that our internet security is at risk for all of us. As long as we are connected to the web, we are subject to potential hacking of our private data. And there are so many different ways that hackers try to get us, from bogus emails to tapping our devices when we use an open WIFI connection. Secure is simply not secure enough. And from individuals to huge corporations like Sony, we have huge security issues.
For some, the idea of hacking is just a game, a challenge to see if you can break the code. But for others, the purpose of hacking may be more sinister. Locks and passwords may not be enough; if there is a will, there seems to always be a way to break the code. Isn't that what the movie, The Imitation Game, is all about. Whether for good or evil purposes, many love the idea of a good challenge. And we are constantly facing threats to our cyber data.
2014 may represent a pivotal mark, but it wasn't the first. Last year, it was Edward Snowden that shared classified government information. We also had the hacking of financial data from The Home Depot and Target. And next year, I am quite certain that more corporations will face similar hacking issues. We should all be worried; unfortunately, as long as their is secrecy and privacy, there will be others trying to expose it. For good or evil purposes, it will be a constant in our lives.
