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Identity theft R us

There are some people in South Africa thanking whoever they see fit to thank that the government has bumbled to implementation of the PoPI Act for so long. You will have heard about the clever people who exposed personal information, including ID numbers and more of over 30 million South Africans. If PoPI was in effect (and, of course, if it was enforced) these clowns could have been facing millions in fines and perhaps even jail time.

Fortunately for them, cybersecurity at a national level can best be described as “leaves a lot to be desired”. But let’s not point fingers at the government, perhaps we should be asking how anyone with an ounce of common sense would leave such sensitive information at the mercy of criminals? Were they stupid? Were they careless? Were they naïve? Were they just so greedy to make a buck off this information they got from somewhere that they couldn’t be bothered to secure it?

The “IT people” are probably going to get the blame for his/her/their incompetence, and rightly so. But how can a director of a company in this day and age not pay any attention to ensuring sensitive information is secure? The information stolen could be used for a number of criminal acts in your name, and my name.

Perhaps it’s just a case of not caring because they know there is not much that can be done in terms of legal action against them – unless some class action complaint is initiated (but what’s the chance of that)?

The only relevant question now is: what can each of us do to try to protect ourselves in light of this criminal act?

Access & Identity Management Handbook 2018

On a lighter note, the Access & Identity Management Handbook has just been published with over 100 pages of information about access control and identity management in these troubled times. Ironically, one of the focus areas of the handbook is trust. How do you determine the level of trust to assign to various identities? It also includes information on the latest technologies and trends in this market, as well as insight from a variety of access and identity experts. (Cybersecurity also gets a mention.)

If you don’t get your copy in the mail, contact vivienne@technews.co.za and one will be dispatched post haste.

2018 is almost here

Finally, the Hi-Tech Security Solutions team would like to wish all our readers a safe and enjoyable holiday season. May 2018 be a year of miracles and the emergence of some political common sense.

Andrew Seldon

Editor

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