12. Data Breaches

A “data breach” is usually the term used by big corporations after hackers have managed to penetrate their computer systems and steal things like names, addresses and credit card numbers. Much of the time, these breaches occur due to insufficient effort on the company’s part to secure their networks and computer systems. The recent Target retail store data breach is an excellent example. It is now emerging that the hackers gained access to Target’s network through a company that the retail giant had hired to maintain the climate control systems in their stores. Apparently, the maintenance company was given access codes to Target’s network which fell into the hands of the hackers. What followed was the theft of as many as 40 million credit card numbers. All of these companies claim they they care about your privacy and security, but how many of them really take every measure possible to protect your information?