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business newsDigipocalypse Now: We're One Keystroke Away From Digital Destruction
By
Kevin Wassong
Apr 05, 2011 11:00 am
What's to say that someday we won't just simply be erased? Our bank accounts, historical statements, Social Security numbers, contacts -- everything.
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What is the “Digipocalypse"? It’s a phrase I have coined to cover anything and everything that can and probably will happen to all of us in the next 20 years. Don’t worry too much because time will only tell. I expect this to become the “Digipocalypse" series of articles that I will run every time I read or hear about the breaches or use of data to manage our daily lives.
In the past few years, our lives have been digitized. We keep our personal records on a computer or out in the ether on someone else’s computer. In the “cloud," it’s called. We’re bits and bytes of information, from our medical records to our tax statements, to Social Security and bank accounts. Think for a moment: What if that digital information was erased? You’ve maybe experienced your own digipocalypse when your computer hard drive crashed. Remember that feeling? I accidentally erased my wife’s file folder on our Apple (AAPL) computer. It took me three days of research, data recovery, a few hundred dollars, and still, POOF! Gone. Now that was a digipocalypse.
In the past years we have had “the fat finger trade” that caused the market to crash 1,000 points in 20 minutes. We have had Wikileaks that has declassified classified information without declassification. We have had the lights go out in New York City. We have had thousands of people from the Congo write thousands of other people asking for their bank accounts so they could just give them a few million dollars. At least we thought it was thousands of people. We have had Pam Anderson revealed. All of this with a key stroke. We’ve had breaches in computer records, stolen thumb drives, hacked accounts, worm viruses. It’s all part of the process and for the most part everything is good about digitization. As a matter of fact, everything about digitization is great, but I have this looming suspicion…(cue ominous music)...
In the next five years, we will all have digital wallets. The battle for payment systems from Apple, eBay (EBAY), American Express (AXP), Comcast (CMCSA), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), Visa (V), and MasterCard (MA) are all happening today. I certainly didn’t add all those companies for search purposes. Seriously, cable companies, phone companies -- anyone with a significant transactional capability will be battling to own YOUR digital wallet. eBay is making strategic moves acquiring GSI Commerce (GSIC). It already has PayPal and is becoming a juggernaut of payment systems. The ability to use my iPhone or Blackberry (RIMM) for my boarding pass to get on an airplane is a reality as we speak. All great examples of “mission critical” digitization.
So what prompted me to write this article? This email from Chase discussing Epsilon’s data breech. I seem to receive these at a somewhat more frequent pace:
Chase is letting our customers know that we have been informed by Epsilon, a vendor we use to send e-mails, that an unauthorized person outside Epsilon accessed files that included e-mail addresses of some Chase customers. We have a team at Epsilon investigating and we are confident that the information that was retrieved included some Chase customer e-mail addresses, but did not include any customer account or financial information. Based on everything we know, your accounts and confidential information remain secure. As always, we are advising our customers of everything we know as we know it, and will keep you informed on what impact, if any, this will have on you.
We apologize if this causes you any inconvenience. We want to remind you that Chase will never ask for your personal information or login credentials in an email. As always, be cautious if you receive e-mails asking for your personal information and be on the lookout for unwanted spam. It is not Chase's practice to request personal information by e-mail.
As a reminder, we recommend that you:
Don't give your Chase OnlineSM User ID or password in e-mail.
The security of your information is a critical priority to us and we strive to handle it carefully at all times. Please visit our Security Center at chase.com and click on "Fraud Information" under the "How to Report Fraud." It provides additional information on exercising caution when reading e-mails that appear to be sent by us.
- Don't respond to e-mails that require you to enter personal information directly into the e-mail.
- Don't respond to e-mails threatening to close your account if you do not take the immediate action of providing personal information.
- Don't reply to e-mails asking you to send personal information.
- Don't use your e-mail address as a login ID or password.
Sincerely,
Patricia O. Baker
Senior Vice President
Chase Executive Office
So what’s to say that someday I will not just simply be erased? My bank accounts, historical statements, Social Security number, contacts, you name it! Luckily we are still flesh and blood. Or…are we?
We are one keystroke away from a digital attack that will lead to the Digipocalypse.
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