TalkTalk Scare’s A Wake-Up Call To All
It has not been a good week for building confidence in internet security.
The concerns have come too close for comfort for many people, especially customers of TalkTalk.
For TalkTalk is, after all, a substantial, hi-tech company at the heart of the internet industry and should have greater competence than most for keeping the bank details and personal identity related data of their customers firmly secure.
If they have failed to keep the lid on the can, then how risky is it for us to entrust our information, via the internet, to smaller enterprises in lo-tech fields, such as hotels and mail order companies?
Fortunately, at the time of writing, the volume of those TalkTalk alarm bells is diminishing by the day, with suggestions of Middle Eastern terrorists or communist superpowers taking the rap replaced by a spotlight on teenage geekery.
It is too late for us to abandon the convenience and money saving of spending over the internet, but it ought to make us think twice about tactics and where we are prepared to buy from.
It is to be hoped, also, that this scare will be good for the industry, a wake-up call to initiate a myriad of reviews, as every outfit storing our account numbers in their electronic vault looks to tighten their access controls.
Above all, perhaps it is time for the banking industry to step in with more stringent measures and greater protection against hostile risks.
The time has probably come for it to require more than three random letters from a special password, for just some payments some of the time, for funds to be released.
