According to iTNews, lax cyber-security is costing the U.S. economy more than $105 Billion. To put that into perspective, that is more than the entire worldwide illegal drug trade. The problem? According to the article, it is that many companies simply do not understand how vulnerable they are.

Security Breakdown

In just one case, according to the article,

Last week Internet stock trading company TD Ameritrade Holding said that one of its databases had been hacked by a thief who obtained personal information on some of its customers. Yesterday, an attorney launching a class-action lawsuit against Ameritrade claimed the online brokerage knew that someone had compromised its database as early as one year ago. An Ameritrade spokeswoman told InformationWeek that all of the company’s 6.3 million accounts opened before July 18 of this year were exposed.

Web 2.0 Roundup

As more of our most important transactions are moved online, it is becoming critical that companies begin to take cyber-security seriously. Our dependence on private firms to secure our most sensitive data has reached the point where not doing everything to keep that data protected should be considered criminal negligence.

In that same light, we should all do our parts by being certain of who we release our information. At the end of the day, we are the only ones who have complete control over the dissemination of our personal data. Hopefully, this study will act as a wakeup call for companies before legislation is put in place of best practices.

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