The U.S. is being targeted at the highest levels of our nation’s critical infrastructure. You’re a target too.

Sadly, there are at least three privacy snipers out there, who have our valuable data in their sights. You can choose to ignore them, deny them or avoid them; however they are relentless and they aren’t  planning on going away any time soon. Informed security experts clearly acknowledge this reality. We should too.

I recently watched two compelling TED.com talks given by security gurus Bruce Schneier and Mikko Hypponen. Their distinct messages and points of view shared a very common theme. Digital crime has emerged as one of our nation’s greatest security threats. These rogue attacks are neither diminishing, nor are they under control.

Bruce Schneier believes that our preconceived notions of security have lulled us to sleep. We believe that the hotels we trust, the food we eat, and the planes we board are safe. According to Schneier, that feeling of security bears little resemblance to actual security, we have just talked ourselves into believing that those activities are what he refers to as “models of safety”. Those models, Schneier says, are hard to dislodge. This thinking makes us more vulnerable to the tactics of relentless identity thieves and hackers.

Hypponen on the other hand, sees value in identifying the three types of online attackers who rule the digital underworld. They are: Continue Reading…