مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

Over the past 10 years, cybersecurity breaches–—of which hacking is by far the most common–—have cost public and business sectors worldwide billions of dollars. While the data from the different countries is not all equally accessible, that which is reported predominantly from the U.S. and the U.K. indicate the most targeted are the financial, healthcare, and government sectors. More recently, the latter two sectors have been the recipients of an everincreasing number of attacks. Although the retail sector has been the recipient of many attacks, technology-based or focused organizations–—such as eBay, Adobe Systems, AOL, and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s PlayStation Network–—have suffered the heaviest losses. These breaches have been widely reported in the media and have served to raise public awareness of the potential damage of security breaches.

Another reason for the heightened public awareness of security breaches is that a number of them have been linked to high-profile celebrities. Security and privacy breaches have become a very profitable topic for the media to cover. Three of the most notable leaks have fueled the publicity in recent years: Edward Snowden spoke out against the mass surveillance that was being conducted by the U.S. National Security Agency; like Snowden, Chelsea Manning (born Bradley Manning) breached the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917 with disclosures of U.S. Army activities in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Julian Assange published secret information and news leaks from anonymous sources, including the Manning files, on WikiLeaks, the website he founded. Breaches of this sort have resulted in divided loyalties in terms of support–—even between countries such that Assange is currently enjoying asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

As the public worldwide operates more and more online, there has been an increased public emphasis on security, as well as privacy. This has been driven by media reports of e-commerce incidents and breaches caused by fraud and identity theft. Social media, too, has opened up a plethora of privacy and security breach possibilities. Similarly, the introduction of e-government in many countries has raised privacy and security concerns, especially pertaining to identity theft. In terms of security and privacy, governments are responsible for their nation’s well-being. With the threat of IT warfare and international hacking into government security and systems, government departments are much more aware of the importance of security.