Cybersecurity, a growing concern for individuals, businesses
BUTLER TWP — Your personal information hosted online has likely been accessed by an outside party and you don’t even know it.
Jody Ogle, a cybersecurity adviser with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told this to attendees of a presentation Friday at Butler County Community College. He said that people who use devices connected to the internet are always at risk of having their information compromised.
Ogle said online services like Facebook, Google and YouTube may appear to be free, but the cost to use them is actually paid by personal information. If users aren’t careful, their information, like passwords, can fall into the wrong hands.
“Information is a commodity," Ogle said. “Data backup is the only way to make it through unscathed.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly organized the talk with Ogle and Tim Burke, a member of the cyber fraud task force for the Secret Service. He said cybercrimes are affecting more and more people every day, but many people don’t understand how to keep their data safe, or even why their information is valuable.
"Some people know a lot about it; some people don’t know anything about it; most people are probably between," Kelly said. “This issue, of all the issues we hear about, is the one we need to know more about.”
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