Recently, we heard about a data base at the University of Hawaii being breached.
According to the experts, this becoming more common with institutions of all kinds.
A data breach is somewhat different than hacking. And in some cases, a data breach can be more dangerous.
"Yes we do hear about them in the news more and more. They are more and more common especially see industries that may not have the same regulations and legal requirements for protection," said Ken Newman of Central Pacific Bank.
In most cases, Newman says, the consumer has the power to try to prevent data breaches - or at least protect his own account.
"When you set passwords, if this is a service that has, manages confidential information, it should be a good strong password and it should be a password that's different from your passwords on other sites," he says.
The obvious question is - how do these data breaches happen?
"in recent years, we've heard about backup tapes being lost when they were sent off site and those tapes happened to be unencrypted, we hear about cases where disgruntled employees may actually be taking the information and selling it," Newman says.
It's important for companies, institutions to use encryptions for customer passwords, card numbers and social security numbers.
"So that things like passwords or card numbers or social security numbers will be encrypted in their data base so that even so that if that information is exposed or that data base is accessed, as long as the encryption is strong encryption, there is a comfort level the data is still protected," Newman says.
And Newman says there are companies that totally separate the consumer base on a different server than where they might keep inventory and other information.
If you have a financial question, email us at dollarandsense@khon2.com
