Are all data breaches created equal?

Companies both small and large have had to deal with a lot of hacker headaches recently, and for many people, news about these data breaches has caused them to change how they interact with the companies that have been affected. Not only is this bad for business for the companies, but it’s also embarrassing.

Even though revealing this information can make life difficult for the companies, it still makes sense that the public should always know about it, right? Well, maybe not. At least that’s what some executives have been saying lately.

It might come as no surprise that corporate executives would be the ones saying that not all data breaches need to be disclosed, but there are a couple different ways to look at this as a consumer that we’re going to focus on.

Tell me everything – In this situation, no matter what the hackers were able to get access to, you want to know about it. This could be sensitive data related to your password or credit card number, or it could be data about the company that’s not related to you.

Just tell me when it’s serious – Under this scenario, you’d only be notified when hackers access sensitive data about you that could be used to cause problems. Data breaches that don’t have a direct bearing on you or your privacy would not be publicly disclosed.

Which one of these options do you personally prefer? Disclosure might be the rule, but with the constant barrage of attacks that many companies have to deal with, some consumers might say that ignorance is bliss to some extent and the companies need to address their security issues privately unless there’s the chance that sensitive customer data has been compromised.

We’d love to hear your thinking on this matter in the comments section.

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Eliminating file sharing security threats with subscription services

Quite frankly, it became an addiction. Active users accumulated thousands of songs, and before too long, this file sharing madness spread into other areas, such as movies and software.

Getting whatever content you want whenever you want it sounds great on paper, but these early networks made it extremely easy to share content illegally, and that’s what they became popular for. Even though the Napster of old and other similar applications don’t exist anymore, downloading content illegally is still a simple task thanks to torrent sites and other dark corners of the Internet.

Of course, it’s not a good idea to be involved in this sort of activity just because it’s easy. For one thing, you’re accessing content illegally, and additionally, hackers love to use interest in illegal files to spread malware. Not only do many of the files contain security threats, but the sites that are used to distribute them can also often be plagued with malware.

Thankfully, if you want to access content online in a legal and secure way, then you have plenty of options that didn’t exist in the early days of Napster. Sure, you can buy a song or movie individually, but the trend these days is focused on subscription services. Part of the appeal of file sharing services is that they can give you access to everything at once, and that’s exactly what subscription services can provide legally for a small monthly fee. There are services like Netflix for movies and television shows, Spotify for music, Kindle Unlimited for books, and the list goes on.

The truth is that many of the people who download files illegally don’t necessarily want to do it, but they feel forced to do it because they can’t access the content in the digital way that they’d like to. Affordable subscription services are turning these people into legal consumers of content, and that’s a better solution for them and the content creators. Not only is the overall quality and experience enhanced for the user, but they’ll also have a clean conscience and avoid the security threats that come along with illegal file sharing.

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