The Ethical Dilemma Of The Case Of Yahoo Inc.

The purpose of this paper is to touch on the issue of Hacking. It will go into detail about the history, evolution, future and prevention of Hacking. In addition, this paper will discuss different types of hackers and their motivation behind hacking. This paper examines the major impact caused by malicious hackers and give modern examples of such attacks. To conclude, it will predict how hacking will be in the near future and give the precautionary measures Information Security professionals can take to mitigate the risk of being victimized.

In today’s IT world every organization has a responsibility to protect the information and sensitive data they have. Protecting data is not only responsibility of security and IT staff but every individual is involved in protecting the information. The risks to information security are not digital only, but it involves technology, people and process that an organization may have. These threats may represent the problems that are associated to complex and expensive solution, but doing nothing about these risks is not the solution.

This case study, written in 2009 is not the only case where a major data breach has occurred within organizations. In the late 2011 Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) was breached impacting up to 77 million user’s accounts including data on names, address and possibly credit card details. In late 2013 Target had a cyber-attack that compromised a large quantity of its data and had 110 million accounts compromised. Finally in September 2014 Apple had their iCloud server breached by hacking that compromised all the users of the online server. These occurrences still have some unanswered questions and several experts have yet to decipher the actual reason as to why the security breach occurred.

When it gets right down to it, in this technologically advanced world, one of the worst things that can happen to people nowadays is having a cyberattack successfully launched against them. In particular, these cyberattacks are especially catastrophic if the end result is nothing short of a data breach. For everyday citizens, they have to be careful not only because

Perlroth, N. (2014, Jan 30). Yahoo Reports Attack on Mail Accounts. The New York Times. Retrieved on March 26, 2016 from www.nytimes.com

The internet has millions of networks and websites that require one’s personal information. Each personal account holds a privacy setting that should guarantee confidentiality but that is not always the case. The advances of technology leads to situations that people are unprepared for such as hacking personal data. Some may believe their information is secure online because companies are always improving security. However, society will always be faced with individuals who will want to steal information. Hackers use private information for monetary value and

In late 2016, Yahoo discovered a different breach had occurred earlier than the first one that was discovered, believing that it had occurred by an unauthorized third party. This breach was much more severe than the first one, with the information of 1 billion accounts compromised. Similar data was stolen in this breach. As a result, Yahoo had required that all users changed their passwords citing security reasons. This also included changing any security questions and answers that would give hackers access to the account.

In the last decade, the global web has become increasingly popular due to many reasons. Social networking and being able to use apps on smartphones to purchase items from high end retail stores has impacted both the growth of the internet and the economy. However, to use most these services users would first need to register and input personal information which could include name, address, and financial information as well as other highly important data which is being collected by governments and private companies. In recent years, there have been many hacking scandals on huge retail companies which has led to the exploitation of millions of customer’s information, this has therefore affected peoples trust on how secure their information is.

On Tuesday October 4, 2016, the international news agency Reuters published an article revealing that Yahoo Inc. had secretly made a custom program that scanned all of its customers incoming emails. The Article stated that this was done in compliance with a classified demand handed down from one of the intelligence Agencys of the United States. It goes on to further state that the program was discovered by a security team in May of 2015, when a security team thought that the yahoo system was being hacked. While legally permissible, it was morally wrong for Yahoo Inc. to create a program that scanned its users’ emails without their consent. This action defies Yahoo users’ moral right to privacy, as well as their moral right to informed

In today’s digital age, the Internet has become an integral part of life. From emailing and instant messaging to banking and submitting tax, nearly every aspect of our life revolves around the cyber world. While the Internet had provided us with great accessibility and convenience over the years, it also exposes us to cyberthreats. All sensitive information such as passwords and personal financial details sent using the internet are subjected to cyber threats to a certain extend []. When stolen, such information can be used against us, affect user’s life. Therefore it is crucial to understand how to protect information from exploitations.

The popularity of internet and its technologies increase day by day and so are the threats to the security of our information transmitted through the internet. The unauthorized or illegal access of the data or tampering of data is very high. In order to provide security of data being accessed by unauthorized people, information security is required [1].

With the ever increasing use of technological advancements such as the internet and personal smartphone devices, many people simply take their security for granted. However, the act of simply connecting to a web page like the Google search engine requires interacting with thousands of security checkpoints and distinct networks just to display their distinctive logo. Every modern organization must consider the risk of the internet, including but not limited to: banks, organizations, universities, militaries, big business, local shops, and even governments. Astonishingly, this is a risk that essentially did not exist merely 20 years ago. Nowadays there are many ways to add security to a system or network. Some will find that simply placing a password on their site works and others may find encrypting their data is the best way to keep private information safe. Nevertheless, the loss of personal information to things like identity theft is at an all time high. This lack of cyber security means that there is an increasing number of ways to get personal information with the ever expanding use of technology and thusly a more dire need for awareness of the risks taken.

Almost all kind of large and small organizations might face increasing number of attacks into their network or intellectual property. This may lead to data disclosure, data destruction, and damage of organization’s reputation. There are numerous threats in the cyber space which might be capable of stealing, destroying or making use of out sensitive data for financial and non-financial gains. As the amount of computer, mobile and internet users increases, so does the number of exploiters.

In line with technological advances and the evolution of the internet, more and more transactions are conducted online. This brings convenience to businesses, financial institutions as well as their customers. However, this reliance towards online transactions has brought cyber risks such as fraud, identity thefts as well as cyber attacks. Biener, Eling & Warfs (2015) defined cyber risk as a multitude of risks from different sources that affect the information and technology assets of a firm. Cyber attacks and cyber risks are well documented in many articles such as Kim-Kwang (2011) Kolodzinski (2002), which reported on cyber threats faced by

Yahoo was initially started as a “hobby” to help its founders “keep track of their personal research on internet”. Next, the hobby “has evolved into a global brand that has changed the way people communicate with each other, find and access information, and make purchases. Today, Yahoo! Inc. is the Internet's leading global consumer and business Services Company, offering a comprehensive network of essential services for Web users around the globe as well as businesses of all sizes. As the first online navigational guide to the Web, Yahoo! is the leader in traffic, advertising, household and business user reach. Yahoo! is also the most recognized and valuable Internet brand globally, reaching over 345 million unique users in 25 countries and 13 languages.” (www.yahoo.com)