When hackers breach a database, they take advantage of weak or stolen passwords 81% of the time. This is what led Troy Hunt to publish a new version Pwned Passwords where people can verify if the password they typed in has been leaked in a previous data breach. The intention is there: businesses are not supposed to let their customers (or employees) use compromised passwords, especially those written in plain text. This begs the question: are passwords enough to secure companies when an actual breach happens?

As of July 2018, downloadable apps on the Apple App Store reached 3.2 million. Data shows that social media applications are the most frequently used, allowing people to connect — and download other supporting apps. As people spend more time on their mobile phones, programming and production of apps are growing exponentially. While developing these products increases visibility and brand value for companies, it is equally important that leaders heed security guidelines.

According to CA Technologies, 53% of the organizations they surveyed experienced an insider threat in the past 12 months and it is only growing in frequency. How can a company combat a threat when it’s coming from their own people?

As Russia welcomed the warmth of spring last March 2018, dozens of banks experienced a phishing attack from a hacker group called Silence. The sender of the email was disguised as FinCERT, Russian Central Bank’s security arm. The emails had attachments that claimed to help standardize digital communication across all banks. In reality, the files contained Silence’ downloader to exfiltrate important data.

The healthcare sector is developing more technologically advanced devices aimed at making healthcare more accurate and safer. While the goal is to accelerate the body’s capacity to heal, computer-hacking threats to these devices that millions of people depend on pose serious issues. It is also not a surprise why hackers are extremely interested in health record data; while social security number is worth 10 cents on the dark web, and credit card 25 cents, medical health record data could be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. This means trouble not only for healthcare providers but also the patients they help.

Humanity’s entrance into the Fourth Industrial Revolution has made exponential changes to how people relate with one another and with their technology. Data is easily uploaded and shared to other gadgets through high-speed Internet and Cloud storage. The increased use of these and other supply chain networks has also made files easier to access—and harder to protect.

When J. C. R. “Lick” Licklider developed ARPAnet in 1962, he had the vision of creating a device that could receive and send data simultaneously amongst a large group of people. He called this idea the “Intergalactic Computer Network”. It carried the necessary principles that would find today’s Internet and, later, cloud computing and storage. In 2018, the Internet had 3.2 billion users. As a result, large amounts of data production and sharing created the demand for quicker, more collaborative storage solutions as an alternative to physical drives.

The monumental success of the semi-automated facial recognition traces its roots back in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 1988. Detectives used composite drawings of suspects and ran them through the very first system deployed to the Lakewood Division, in hopes that the digitized mugshots in their database would reveal who their prime suspect would be.

In 2015, experts declared that the fourth industrial revolution had begun in Germany and other countries. The manufacturing industry started developing smart machines to do more complex work and in the years that followed, these smart machines include fitness bracelets connected to mobile applications that give real-time updates on exercise routines, and in smart refrigerators that can communicate if it’s time to order more groceries.