Is cyber shopping safe enough?
Posted by Ellee on Nov 23, 2006 in updates | 4 commentsHot on the heels of the news that Nationwide may have put 11 million
customers at risk of identity theft, I find that I might also be at risk following a warning from The Economist.
It seems they have suffered a serious security breach, their online shop has been hacked into from the beginning of the year, though it has has only recently been discovered. As one of their customers, my personal details were stored on their database and could now be in the hands of a criminal. They might also have one or two high profile clients listed too who will be mortified.
The Economist has since removed the shopping site, which must be costing them a fortune this time of year. But it makes me wonder how safe cyber shopping is, with online hacking obviously big business, perhaps more prolific this time of the year. Am I still safe with Amazon, a favourite of mine, for my festive purchases?
The Economist’s tampering was very serious, and most worryingly, it had been going on all year unnoticed:
“We discovered the breach on Monday, 6 November, when someone changed data on the site to redirect users away from our site. In the course of our investigation of that breach, we discovered that someone had been attempting to read our database since at least the start of the year. We do not know for certain that they succeeded in reading the data.”
They say they didn’t store banking, credit or debit card information on Economistshop.com, which is a relief, but it was still a clear case of identity theft.
Worryingly, a new data study reports that many businesses don’t think they can prevent such breaches, and Cardiff seems to be the place most at risk in the UK. Do you feel your happy to continue buying online? Is there a fool-proof data security system? How safe is our personal data in a third party’s hands?
Tim, I would have thought any online shopping service would have used the best security. But I’m glad to hear you think Amazon is safe, it is a favourite of mine.
Computer security is really difficult to get right. No software is 100% secure, because it’s developed by us imperfect humans.
There’s a huge difference between someone like The Economist and Amazon. Companies like Amazon and eBay hire the very best brains they can get to think of how to make systems more secure.
Personally, I worry far less about computer security than, for instance, the security of using a credit card in an unknown restaurant.
What I’ve been told about Nationwide is that there’s not enough data to allow identify theft.
Most identify fraud isn’t related to cracking computer systems. It’s done by more dreary means – people using disposed documents and the like.
I’am also a regular cyber shopper, using Amazon, play.com, and e-bay just to name a few,also pay most of my bills online too, i sometimes worry about how safe it is BUT it just makes life so much easier that its worth the risk…..
I’m a regular cyber shopper, Ellie; I buy off Amazon, Plsy.com and buy and sell off EBay. I have also bought a hat off a store in Australia.
My advice is to stick to reputable places. For EBay, only deal with those with a good record.