Out of the box Stolen personal data is not a big issue
I often read about data breaches where thousands or millions of customer data are stolen and placed for sale in the dark web. 

The media, and the government authority, made it appear that there is a serious problem, and some catastrophe may occur down the road. 

My personal data is probably available in the dark web, along with millions or billions of other personal data. 

I am not concerned.

Anyone is free to take my email address, phone number, date of birth, identification number and credit card number and even the password that I use for some unimportant websites. These data are not sensitive. 

Even if they have the CVV of my credit card number, my bank sends a one time pin (OTP) to authorize any payment. So, it is reasonably safe. 

They may use my password to access, for example, a news website. They are welcome to it. Frankly, I don't think they will bother. 

Maybe, they can use a password to access my email account or social media account. That can be troublesome to me. 

Fortunately, these big tech sites have introduced a system to alert me, when there is an access from a device that was not used before. That is helpful. It always happened that I was the person using a new device, rather than a hacker. 

Even if the hacker is able to steal my email or social media account, the big tech provides me with the way to recover my account. It does cause some inconvenience, but no great harm. 

I have learned not to bother about my personal data being available for sale in the dark web. 

I am surprised that the government authority and the media still play up the catastrophe whenever a website is breached and personal data is stolen. It is time for them to grow up.

Tan Kin Lian





 

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