There has been numerous times throughout history that there has been digital security failures. The biggest one that has recently happened is Heartbleed. According to the Straits Times, Heartbleed is a two-year programming flaw in something called OpenSSL, an open source consortium that builds and maintains a library of tools that essentially encrypt two-thirds of the Internet’s traffic. This means that a cyberintruder can access a computers cookies, passwords very easily. It makes the computer vulnerable to the theft of sensitive information. Knowing this, I feel that it is the responsibility of companies to report any failures in their security system. It is the ethically right thing to do because people can be getting there information stolen and they should be aware of this happening so they can be aware that all of their personal information is out on the web. The companies have a responsibility to its customers to deliver services to uphold the integrity of the company. If they were not to notify them that is how you lose many loyal customers resulting in the downfall of your company.
I believe that as a customer I have the right to know if my personal information has been accessed. This information is essential to the safety and security of my family. I am the protector of my family and if my personal emails, credit card information has been seen by a criminal that wants to steal it, I can be at a huge risk financially. There is a statistic that showed that there is on average 144 billion emails that everyday that is vulnerable to Heartbleed. That is a lot of information that you could have sent via email and it really is the responsibility of the company to tell you what has been stolen and what has not. I know it is a bad look for the company but it is what is morally right. Obviously your credit card information has to be accessed by the company so you can pay them, but if they find out that an intruder has accessed it and can use it to steal money from your account, it is their duty to come forward no matter how weak the company looks.
With all of this information that I have just found out about digital failures I am way less likely to shop online. My personal information is called PERSONAL for a reason and now that I know how easily it can be accessed by others I will refrain from shopping as long as possible. The fact that the government did not know about this flaw for two years really shows me how weak our government is and how easy it is to get things passed the government. If I desperately have to shop online I will but I will try to personally go to the store and buy it. I understand that we are not perfect and their is obviously ways to steal information from people but to know that the company would not tell the victims really frightens me. My information could be getting stolen as we speak and I would never know because the companies only care about their profits and not about the integrity of the company. For me to change my ways an shop online more their would have to be some major changes. I would want to automatically know by like a system that my information has been stolen and I would like compensation for what has been stolen. It is the companies fault that my information has been stolen so the least they can do is help the victims out. I feel that this is only going to get worse because the digital age is growing each year and with this information becoming public, people will not trust the internet anymore. I know the internet is very innovative and much easier to do things especially shop. People will have to become less lazy and go out and buy these products to prevent this from happening. The government will need more resources to prevent catastrophes like this happening again.
Fung, B. (2014, April). Heartbleed is about to get worse, and it will slow the Internet to a crawl. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/04/14/heartbleed-is-about-to-get-worse-and-it-will-slow-the-internet-to-a-crawl/
Straits Times (2014, April 17). What is Heartbleed and how it can steal information from you. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/heartbleed-and-cyber-security-20140416
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