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NEVER HAS THE issue of security been thrown into sharper focus than in the last few months.
Problems like Heartbleed, the iCloud photo leaks, the Sony hacking scandal and millions of credit cards being compromised in the US has shone a light on security problems which can affect consumers.
Most recently, the discovery of a new vulnerability this week called FREAK has only added to these woes – and with smart devices like smart TVs, smartwatches and Internet of Things gadgets like Nest trying to break into the mainstream, the chances of more breaches happing is high.
That’s something that Bogdan Botezatu, who works as the senior threat analyst at Bitdefender, feels is an inevitability. Since there is no such thing as 100% secure, and since the likes of the cloud, wearables and smart items are still in the early stages, there will be vulnerabilities discovered and later exploited.
“We’re at version one [with smart devices] and version one is always prone to failure,” says Botezatu. ”We’re going to see a lot of incidents in this space from the early adaptors [and there's] going to be an incident so massive, it’s going to make everybody do better with their security.”
Until then, I don’t think that vendors are going to give too much thought on the security side… I’m looking forward to that mistake to happen sooner rather than later as it’s going to be less data exposed.”
While that might sound harsh, it’s necessary as we learn better from what happens instead of predicting potential problems. Yet this always inevitably happens when a high profile incident occurs, either involving a major company or celebrities like the iCloud photos leak late last year.
“The iCloud breach became so well known and so viral because it exposed a lot celebrities in their most intimate moments,” explains Botezatu. ”Look at credit cards. A million credit card details are being dumped every single day in some corner of the internet, it has become the usual stuff. Nobody pays attention to a number of credit card numbers being leaked out because it happens every day and there’s no high-profile target.”
And ultimately, it’s consumers’ data that’s at risk. While users are encouraged to adopt tighter security measures like two-factor authentication, this responsibility should fall more on the businesses themselves.
“I don’t think the security business should fall on the consumer,” says Botezatu ”I think companies should do whatever is necessary to make sure their data doesn’t leak out but again, we’re coming from a security business and I can frankly tell you that there’s no such thing as 100% security regardless of how good you are.”
At some point, they’re going to get breached and by that point, they have better have encryption in place or a quick notification mechanism to make sure the users’ data is safe [or] at least make sure the user knows they got breached.
Quinton O’Reilly is at the Mobile World Congress is Barcelona all this week. Follow all the goings-on at @TheJournalTech.
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Say goodbye to the Golden Goose.
The problem here is that you can’t control what the other gov’t going to do. Our corporation tax thing is based on shakey ground as a result. And I’m not exactly sure of the figures but it’s a good few jobs relying on our tax advantage. The EU is constantly sniping on about it. What’s needed is good honest indigenous employment, we can’t afford to have it skewed the way it is, could end up in trouble again
It would help a lot – most of all the Irish people – if the government taxed companies at 12.5% and not 2.5%.
Apple paid about $715 million in corporation tax on foreign profits of $37 billion in fiscal 2012.
That is a meagre 1.9% in tax – more than 10% below the effective rate which Irish governments claim.
What multi-nationals do not pay in tax, we do. The joke is on us.
Can someone clarify for me? Closing the loophole here in Ireland does not mean us changing our corporate tax rate does it? Or does it? im still confused .
Our corporate tax rate stays the same.
Closing the loophole on our side means that they can’t move their money again to avoid taxes.
Hi Catherine, Ireland’s corporate tax rate isn’t affected – the US is trying to close loopholes which allow companies with most of their operations there to shift money overseas without paying tax. But if it works, it would mean US companies are less likely to try an “inversion” to a country with a low corporate tax rate like Ireland.
Thank you both for that. Much appreciated
Thank you Peter. The article was pretty clear and an easy to be honest . It was just me needing to double check . :)
The word inversion is makey uppy. These companies are exercising their right to move off shore. No administration is going to outlaw that no matter how much spin they put on it. The most the US can do is add yet another tax on top of their higher corporate tax rate and that is doubtful too. Nobody is breaking the law and no one is likely to change the law much either. Nothing to see here, move on!
@pat. So I don’t understand why they were fined for moving the tax base to Covidien if the US Govt can’t do anything about it? Can you explain plse?
While i disagree with companies abusing tax systems here in Ireland and abroad attention should also be drawn to the inefficiencies in the IRS tax system in the USA and the Americans should stop pointing jealous fingers at other countries and reform their own tax system for companies which is at present punitive
Problem here is US rate of Corporation Tax is way too high. Tell BO to cut his rates and the problem will sort itself out
The bottom line is the companies will push down wages and benefits for the workers. The profits will have to be attractive to the shareholders.
So buy some shares.
The only issue with the Irish Corporation Tax is that a company registered in Ireland for Corporation Taxation had no domical residence for tax purposes, thus leading the to Double Irish tax structure, where one Irish company is tax resident in Ireland and the other Irish company is tax resident in Bermuda and they can transfer money between each other as US Transfer Pricing Rule are not included in Irish Tax Law.
I am nearly sure that Michael Noonan in last years budget speech addressed this by stating that ALL Companies registered in Ireland would have an Irish Domicile for tax purposes.
In addition, if the US are so concerned about this they should use a carrot instead of a stick approach to corporation tax and reduce nominal rate from 35% to 25%.
have your say