In this article, British Airways was attacked for personal and financial information of people booking with their company online. Although passport or booking information was allegedly left alone, it is a severe threat that information that could severely impact a user's credit was being stolen. In cases like this, it is not uncommon that many other victims will be found after the initial awareness and correction of the situation. As college students or business people, we must realize that we are in a threat of this happening to us at any time. Just as students here at Santa Fe College, we use global transportation for our study abroad trips.

We are taught about how to protect our passport and personal information overseas, but it is much more uncommon to be informed about online purchases and the risks that are involved with putting personal data online, even on secure sites. Hackers can infiltrate our bank accounts, bill pay with companies, and even our travel plans. Information that can be placed online in exchange for goods and services is a constant threat. As security rises, so do the skills of hackers that want to use our personal information for their own gains.

As these attacks become more prevalent and complicated, it's important for consumers to protect themselves by taking a proactive stance when it comes to their security. Ensuring that the site's you're visiting are legitimate, controlling access to your data and being sure not to share credentials, intentionally or through accidental negligence, and being mindful of where and how you're sending your data goes a long way to protecting yourself.

Aside from being proactive about protecting your data, you can take other steps to better identify if your personal information has been compromised. Many financial institutions offer free credit monitoring and alerts. Free credit reports are available on an annual basis at http://annualcreditreport.com/

, and keeping track of not only your open credit accounts but any credit inquiries can help you more rapidly identify potentially fraudulent activities made on your behalf. Beyond protecting your financial assets and liabilities, a growing number of online services, including Google and Facebook, allow you to monitor account activity. Taking the safety of your data into your own hands is the best way of protecting yourself.

Companies are expected to be able to protect consumer’s personal information and data but that isn’t always possible. When a company’s data is breached no matter the software the process of containing the breach is more or less the same and that also goes for the British Airway breach. Following the risk management process of identifying assets, identifying threats, Assessing Vulnerabilities, assessing risk and migrating risk tries to contain the risk but as we saw with the British Airways incident that this doesn’t protect everyone’s data but this protects what hasn’t been compromised yet. After the post incident activity phase it’s important that the company notify every consumer that had their personal data was compromised or thought it might be compromised and tell them how this will affect them. 

This article discuses the improvements of facial recognition. It also discusses the reasons why fingerprints won't die as a way to sign in. Its one of the very few things criminals or cyber criminals can access. Its' believed that facial recognition is much more easily stolen than fingerprint.