Are Tech Companies Taking Our Security Seriously?

From mobile phones to headphones to tablets, many people use technology daily. But do any of these people consider their security while using these devices? In addition, do the companies who make these tools understand all the possible compromises that can occur?

As if consumers needed more reasons to distrust tech firms in the United States, firms have reacted slowly to various breaches this year among other discovered vulnerabilities. Two of the worst security issues this year involved Meltdown and Spectre – a security flaw which had existed for over five years. According to Reuters, when discovered, Intel did not reach out to security agencies until the breach had been made public. If this is true, this means that the compromise affecting companies and agencies may go deeper than what we believe. In a similar manner, many firms have paid little attention to the DHS warnings about mobile platforms.

Just recently with the Chinese chip inserted into motherboards, the response from tech companies implied that security isn't a top concern if financial concerns are higher (relative to their business). Companies give little thought to how these compromises can be used by nefarious actors and have no response for how they're keeping people's information secure.

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We fully expect compromises and breaches to grow worse, even though we've seen some of the worst attacks this year. As our sponsor warned in the post on Meltdown and Spectre:

To state this is one of the most dangerous compromises in tech history is an understatement. Not only have these existed for years without anyone catching them (and we’re not sure if advanced hackers did), consumers and businesses have been implementing solutions while a compromise lurked in all of their systems. This also raises concerns about the open source community as well – people assume that other people are investigating problems, but do they have any evidence of this? These compromises show the danger of the security community’s diffusion of responsibility in regards to open source tools – “everyone else is looking at the problem.”

Assuming that someone else is looking at it leads to danger. Most people aren't. And most people do not consider security in anything. In addition, the little knowledge someone has about security only covers a small area. As we see, even if software is secure, hardware can easily compromise that. With the rise of smart chips and smart dust, infiltration becomes easier and easier for nefarious actors.

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Consider some of the data breaches and hacks this year in 2018. These continue to grow worse in time. Do you feel safe? Do you think companies should continue to have your data? Do you want to offer more data to companies who mismanage your data?

• OnePlus security breach
• MyFitnessPal security breach
• Exactis security breach
• Electronic devices involved in a security breach
• Voting systems' security breach
• T-Mobile security breach
• Air Canada security breach
• Brazilian fashion company breach
• Major Facebook breach
• Chinese chip attack

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We used the second paragraph from Can We Trust Tech Companies with permission from our sponsor, FinTek Development. Image from Pixabay.