enhr2004

© ComputerMonger

If you believe that your online data is private, you might be in for a surprise. Ever y click you make is being tracked, not only by your browser but by hundreds of small companies that tie the click of your mouse to your IP data, and then to your name. And they sell that data to the highest bidder. This is a growing problem that has made it's way to the federal government's attention. A Democrat from California recently introduced a House proposal for "Do Not Track" legislation.

The fact remains that many consumers still don't know they are being tracked, or how to adjust their privacy settings to block it. Tracking companies like Quantcast and BlueKai plant cookies at websites to track the activities of visitors and sell that information at a profit, but that personal information could ultimately end up being used for anything without the individuals consent or control.

© Ed Yourdon

A new wave of cybercriminals have been targeting corporate trade secrets, marketing plans, source code and other intellectual property(IP). A recent study found that corporate IP data is the fastest growing currency on the black market, and that companies were not doing a good job of protecting email describing corporate culture, employee manuals and patents. Attackers are using targeted attacks and social engineering tactics to gain access to this type of sensitive information.

Marketing plans, trade secret formulas and information relating to mergers and acquisitions are especially popular targets recently. In addition, many organizations are running very tight budgets and they are unwilling to spend the resources on following up on data breaches or better securing systems to avoid a future breach. Close to a quarter of organizations surveyed said that they have had a merger or acquisition or a new product roll-out slowed or stopped by a data breach.

© joebeone

As of this month, the Internet has officially outgrown the scale of its original design. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which hands out IP addresses for the entire world, has given out two of the very last IP address blocks to APNIC, the registrar for the Asia-Pac region. This is really the end of IP addresses as we have known them. Some have even termed it the "IPocalypse", but are the implications that dire?

Within the current parameters for IP address numbers, there are only about 4.3 billion combinations that are possible. So when we hit that limit, nothing actually happens. The Internet continues to work. But a few months later people may start to see the effects of a stunted Internet because the number of devices that can connect to it will be limited. However, we will probably never reach the point where my IP address request for a new device will go unfulfilled, because there's already a new address scheme to put in place called v6 that will allow for many more IP addresses then before.