The rise of hacktivism in the Internet also gives way a new whistle-blowing. Companies, which are not that secured need to secure their data, as soon as they can.
Latest exploits of hacktivists such as LulzSec and Anonymous have prove the loopholes and vulnerabilities in the corporate networks and security practices of both public and private sector organizations.
Ever since, Wikileaks first discovered, new sites with similar intention have all sprung around the Internet. Anonymous named two hacker’s sites this month – LocalLeaks and HackerLeaks.
Experts from ZDNet Asia noted that the rises of whistle-blowing are forcing companies with loopholes in their security to tighten their defenses.
Michael Netzley, assistant professor of corporate communication at the Singapore Management University (SMU) claims that exposes are just a fact of a daily life today and will continue forever.
Since Social Media is less regulated, a number of people now tempted to out any information they could find.
Similarly, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, says there is a growing trend that making a person’s information be out in public is a trendy thing even though it can result to hurting the reputation of others.
Rob McMillan, Gartner’s research director for security risk and privacy, noted that the idea of data leaking out of organizations is already old. However, the rise of sites or platforms that encourage common people to leak any information they found changes everything.
On the positive side, those organizations never even pay attention to their security are now trying to patch a flaws from their websites. They now understand the risk that involved with a loosened security.
For those companies, which have not taken security lightly, thins do not hang at all. They are confident that their information secured, but they already knew that there will be times that someone could access their most guarded data. To prepare for such, they tightened their security even more.
Gao Debin, assistant professor at SMU’s School of Information Systems, also agree about the positive side that these exploits could bring to the corporate. These data leaks are going to force the company to secure their information even more.
The same idea that there are always people watching one could also means that the security of your site has a weakness. The risk in security would mean the rise for security investment.
Although, the hackers have a legitimate reason for exposing the site, they are also giving some crucial details to other hackers on how to hack that website.