For a time, Locky ransomware was the scourge of the internet and was considered by many security experts to be the most widely distributed form of malware on the internet.

Things change, however, and the internet marches on. Hackers latch on to the latest and greatest variants, and after a brief surge to the top, Locky was forgotten and passed over in preference for newer models.

Remember the global Wannacry ransomware attack? Remember the even more recent Petya attacks?

You would think after either of these, IT professionals around the world would have stepped up and immediately implemented better, stronger and more robust security protocols, because as those attacks proved, if the hackers want to, they can bring not just individual companies, but whole industries to their knees.

Nationwide may be “on your side,” as their ads claim, but they’re not immune to data breaches, and in 2012, they suffered a serious one that impacted more than 1.2 million of their customers. A post mortem investigation into the breach concluded that it was made possible because the company failed to install a security patch, which created an opening that the hackers were only too happy to exploit.

Microsoft’s increased transparency in recent years is winning it high marks and added trust among the company’s massive user base, at least according to the recent report offered by Marisa Rogers. Rogers is the Privacy Officer for the company’s Windows and Devices group, who reports that fully 71 percent of users who have updated to the Windows 10 Creator Kit have opted to enable “Full” telemetry and diagnostic data collection during the process of upgrading their systems.

This year is on track to win the dubious honor of seeing more hacking attacks than any year since statistics have been kept, and should handily beat out 2016’s total, which currently holds the record, according to a recently published report by NTT Security.

Even cybersecurity companies struggle with data security. Case in point: FireEye, a well-known and well-respected player in the industry, has had this struggle. Recently, they fell victim to a successful hacking attack conducted by a group called “31337.”

Of interest, the hackers didn’t breach the corporate network, but instead, hacked into a number of one particular analyst’s personal online accounts.

Microsoft just released its August 2017 security patch, as is customary on Patch Tuesday, which, by itself, is not news. The importance of this particular security update, however, is extremely newsworthy, and if you’re not in the habit of installing security updates when they come out, you’ll want to grab this one.

“Sometimes the wheel turns slowly, but it turns.”

That quote, made famous by Lorne Michaels, certainly applies in the case of the government’s involvement in securing internet-connected devices.

By now, almost everyone has at least one “smart” device in their home or driveway.

Smart device manufacturers are learning a lesson that most internet-based service companies know very well. At least half of the consumer market is willing to trade their personal information, and trade it cheaply, according to a recent study conducted by Parks Associates titled, “The Value of Data – New Smart Home Business Models.

The British Government has had enough. The past several years have seen a large and growing number of high-profile data breaches with every year breaking the last year’s records in total number of attacks and total number of compromised records. Even so, a shockingly low number of companies seem to have gotten the memo that the game is changing around them.