UPDATED 10:26 EDT / DECEMBER 30 2010

The Data Leakage Roundup: Is Your Info Safe for 2011?

Honda and Mozilla are two more occurrances in a string of data breaches going down lately. Privacy, as Facebook knows all too well by now, is a very heated issue, and the same is now true for Honda.  A Honda database containing over 2 million U.S customers’ personal data including e-mail addresses, names, login names and even VIN numbers has been stolen.

“It’s not yet 100 percent clear if this breach is connected to the recent breach of the email marketing firm Silverpop Systems, but it sure looks that way. Honda was an enthusiastic Silverpop customer as recently as 2009, according to this press release. It’s the same company whose data was breached in thefts of customer data from McDonald’s and deviantArt. A similar incident was reported concerning the drug store chain Walgreen’s but it hasn’t been tied specifically to Silverpop.”

In addition to Honda’s exposed users, 44,000 old md5-based Mozilla accounts have also been recently left out in the open. A partial database of reportedly inactive accounts was accidently left on a public Mozilla server, as was announced in the Mozilla Security Blog back in Monday.

This week alone has brought to light more potential data hazards, as consumers take matters into their own hands.  iPhone, Android and other mobile apps are also involved.  We covered here a recent lawsuit filed against apple by an iPhone user, accusing the company of selling users personal information and leaking personal data to third parties using the Unique Device Identifier.  Perhaps they should all take some cues from Facebook–the social network had to rapidly modify their third-party allowances to protect user data from being leaked via apps.

Personal cloud-hosted data is becoming more involved with brands and accounts, which means the development of security measures for future products are becoming first priority. The most trusted and secure brand will likely have the most attractive image in the public eye.


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