Hard to find peace of mind in world of info hackers

There was a time in our recent history that people were leery of purchasing anything online with a credit card. Some of you may still be cautious about it, but our reality now is that almost anything can be accessed, reserved or purchased remotely with a smart phone and Internet access. Money can be moved instantly, from wherever you are to wherever you want it to go.

This got me thinking about the flow of information and the danger associated with agencies having access to all of that information.

An obvious example is the hack of the online dating site Ashley Madison. There have been data breaches at large companies in the past but the implications associated with Ashley Madison were ominous.

For those who don’t know, Ashley Madison was a dating site specifically for married people or those in committed relationships, looking to have affairs. That’s how it was marketed.

Hackers threatened to make names and email addresses public if the site wasn’t shut down. Ashley Madison refused and the hackers made good on the threat. Relationships presumably were in peril when the veil of anonymity was pulled away.

But what about less sinister services that have become hugely popular worldwide, like Airbnb and Uber?

Airbnb is a lodging site where people can open up their homes to strangers for a place to stay. No cash is exchanged because the transactions happen online through credit card or PayPal.

You never have to meet your host, and hosts never have to meet their renters. You can plan an entire trip, staying in one stranger’s house after another. There are checks and balances in place, security measures like scanning ID and asking for references, verifying phone numbers and the like. You can check reviews and view photos of your destination, right from your phone, then book and pay for it by phone.

But what if someone accessed the huge database that is Airbnb and had countless credit card numbers at their disposal? Names, addresses, access to messages about where the key is hidden, the combination number for the parking lot lock at a home, all at one person’s whim?

In a narrow victory for Uber this week, London city council voted against forcing the company’s drivers to have cameras in their cars, much to the ire of the city’s regulated cab drivers who have to abide by this rule.

Uber drivers follow a similar protocol as Airbnb in that no cash changes hands. Your credit card or PayPal account is charged for the fare and the drivers don’t handle money. Part of the reasoning behind not forcing Uber drivers to have onboard cameras was the reduced risk from these cashless transactions.

I have had my share of conspiracy theorists try to shake my confidence in providing personal information to online agencies, and mostly I’ve just laughed them off.

But security breaches are much more prevalent than we realize. Many are never reported, as companies do damage control before stakeholders get wind of the hack.

This week, stories emerged that our federal government is in the final stages of enacting legislation requiring all Canadian businesses to report a cybersecurity breach as soon as they become aware of it. New laws were passed as part of the Digital Privacy Act back in 2015, but haven’t come into effect yet because of the need for “related regulations outlining specific requirements.”

But the fact that Canada deems this a priority means it happens and no one ever knows. It’s a gap in the protection of our personal and financial information. All I’m saying is, the conspiracy theorists may not be all that far off. When people hack your email or social media account, it may not be the only thing they have access to.

Large breaches are rampant, and companies that deal with sensitive information have cause for worry.

You should be mindful too.