Recent Hacks Raise Questions Over Big Data Safety

American big business has been plagued by a series of major security breaches. Beginning with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this wave of major data breaches has led to the theft of millions of confidential documents, many of which containing account information such as payment & billing information.

American big business has been plagued by a series of major security breaches. Beginning with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this wave of major data breaches has led to the theft of millions of confidential documents, many of which containing account information such as payment & billing information. This security breach has put millions at major risk of identity theft.  According to a recent article from the inquisitor “thieves managed to obtain passwords of 10,000 customer accounts and use their frequent flier miles.” They went on to state that they have not yet ascertained the full extent of the breach and will continue to keep customers and the public updated. Security issues with these databases are all too common.

A well-known big data security company recently put out an interesting piece on the subject, outlining all of the major hacks within fortune 500 companies over the last 10 years. The cost of hacking as its called raises some alarming points on the safety of large centralized databases. Most of targets were payment information. Each time one of these databases is breached potential millions are put at serious risk for identity theft.

 Is the risk worth the reward? This is a question that has been raised about big data from its beginnings. On one hand it has the potential to revolutionize how we operate, teach us new things about the world that we never could have seen without such information. Everything from predicating human behaviors to finding cures for the worlds most devastating illness can be helped by this new technology. As a result I still revere it’s power but also feel that we respect this power and use it wisely. Are we using big data to it’s full potential? The answer is no. This is still a very new field with lots of room to grow. However I feel that we can use this technology to help us solve the security issues that surround it. When we can reach this point we will have the capability to create more secure systems through obscurity in information. This will make breaches more difficult than ever before.

 However you feel about this pressing issue it will only continue to mount as data storage becomes more centralized. Ultimately we must all work towards tightening hadoop security on our systems finding new an innovating ways to increase security is a long term game and will always be evolving.