Concerns surrounding data security and privacy are increasing amongst the public

With Data Privacy Day on Sunday 28th January, Tripwire, conducted a poll that asked "who are you most concerned about collecting your private information? The government, corporations, identify theft criminals, or the online stalkers/harassers?".

Of the 315 who participated, the majority (40 percent) said that they would be most worried about corporations stealing their information. Nearly a third (27 percent) said they were most concerned about the government gathering their critical data, whereas only a fifth (21 percent) voted for identity theft criminals as being their main concern. Only 12 percent were concerned about online stalkers and harassers storing their private information.

In today’s evolving and connected landscape, the concerns surrounding data security and privacy are increasing amongst the public, with many feeling they have lost control on how their personal data is being collected. As evidenced in the poll, people are more concerned about organisations like the government and corporations than they are about criminals.

This suggests that organisations should be more transparent about their data collection practices, and that they have implemented appropriate safeguards against that data leaks. Steps are being taken to better protect data, such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will be enforced in May 2018. GDPR is a new set of regulations that will cement how organisations can handle the data of EU citizens.

Tim Erlin, VP of Product Management and Strategy at Tripwire, said: “Nearly the entire economy is geared to convince you that your data really doesn’t need to be private, and that you should freely share it. From social media, to loyalty programs, to smart home devices; all of these trends are built on the back of your data. Remember that it’s yours, and it’s valuable and you have a right to protect it and keep it private. That leads you to making explicit choices to share, rather than sharing by default. And maybe, that awareness changes a few of those choices.”

Paul Norris, senior systems engineer for EMEA at Tripwire, added: “As everyday interaction with the world around us is becoming more reliant on computer systems, it’s even more vital that you should care and take action around your data privacy.

"These days, personal identifiable identification (PII) data can be stored at a lot of places ranging from local drives on laptops, through to portable media and cloud providers storing data online. It’s imperative that you maintain individual strong passwords for all your online accounts, so if one account is compromised, other accounts do not suffer. And as you will have so many passwords to manage, consider using a password management piece of software and enable two-factor authentication to add a layer of security to your solution.”

Tyler Reguly, manager of security R&D, Tripwire, noted: “Accept that your data is not private. Once you do that, you will find yourself less stressed when your data is inevitably breached. I have three rules that I try to live by:

* If they don’t utilize Amazon/PayPal for payments, place your order elsewhere.
* If you wouldn’t get it developed at the store, don’t take the picture.
* Don’t take risks with your primary PC. Restrict social media browsing to cell phones, tablets, and secondary PCs.