SUMMARY OF THE USE OF TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS CASE
Anyone who used the site could have been a victim. One of the reasons that I chose this topic for my case study is that the personal information of a friend and colleague was in the third batch of user information released. The information that was publicly visible was his name, .edu email address, phone number, home address, and credit card information. I remember being shocked and feeling awkward toward him after the revelation (partially because his wife is also a colleague). After a long conversation with him and some of the things he shared with me, I became sympathetic. He was one of the individuals that had created an Ashley Madison account with the intention to use it for engaging in an extramarital relationship. He told me that he never actually went through with meeting anyone from the site in person and, eventually, paid the $19 fee to have all of his information deleted. In his mind, it was over. When his information was published and began to become more commonly known among other colleagues and, eventually, the students, he was under a tremendous amount of stress. His home life was difficult, his work life was difficult, and there was a short time that he feared he would lose his job. Fortunately, he fared better than some of the others in that he kept his job, managed to work things out with his wife, and eventually, his Ashley Madison nightmare faded into a distant memory.
This story is relevant because it demonstrates that anyone who uses social media, dating sites, or sites like Ashley Madison could be a victim of a large-scale data breach. I do try to practice good information security practices such as using strong passwords, changing passwords regularly, logging out of my workstations when stepping away from the desk, and not giving my passwords or PINs to anyone. Of course, the thing that makes breaches like Ashley Madison particularly scary is that you could do everything right and if the service provider does not have adequate security measures in place, then your information is at risk.
In my current job, I serve as a director of distance education and libraries. As a result, I feel that training my staff to be mindful of information security and demonstrating good information security practices myself are important. Within the learning management system and our integrated library system, we have access to vast amounts of personally identifiable information. Unauthorized access to either one of these systems could result in a devastating amount of information about students and employees could be illegally released.
This story is relevant because it demonstrates that anyone who uses social media, dating sites, or sites like Ashley Madison could be a victim of a large-scale data breach. I do try to practice good information security practices such as using strong passwords, changing passwords regularly, logging out of my workstations when stepping away from the desk, and not giving my passwords or PINs to anyone. Of course, the thing that makes breaches like Ashley Madison particularly scary is that you could do everything right and if the service provider does not have adequate security measures in place, then your information is at risk.
In my current job, I serve as a director of distance education and libraries. As a result, I feel that training my staff to be mindful of information security and demonstrating good information security practices myself are important. Within the learning management system and our integrated library system, we have access to vast amounts of personally identifiable information. Unauthorized access to either one of these systems could result in a devastating amount of information about students and employees could be illegally released.
