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How to enhance your data privacy amid constant data breaches · Kvetch & Release

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  Speaker 1: Today we're back folks. John Letketh here on a one
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  Speaker 1: hundred CKLW. A little bit of cold play there. I've
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  Speaker 1: been sure of a lifetime.
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  Speaker 1: Ten thirty three.
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  Speaker 2: We're gonna be going right into an interview that we've
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  Speaker 2: got right now talking a little bit about that AM
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  Speaker 2: eight hundred CKLW news poll question with a new study
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  Speaker 2: showing Canadian organizations that get caught up in data breaches
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  Speaker 2: wind up paying an average six point three million dollars
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  Speaker 2: to deal with them. That's down from twenty twenty three
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  Speaker 2: when the average was six point nine to four, just
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  Speaker 2: about seven million dollars. And this is coming out of
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  Speaker 2: a new IBM report that analyzed some data breaches. Out
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  Speaker 2: of the sixteen countries that they looked at, Canada had
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  Speaker 2: the sixth highest cast for data breaches.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, that is I don't know, it's probably not the
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  Speaker 1: best thing.
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  Speaker 2: Someone who can help break this down explain it to
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  Speaker 2: us is the host of tech Talk on AM eight
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  Speaker 2: hundred ckl W you can hear Sundays five to six.
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  Speaker 2: Tech journalist Mark Saltzman joins right now, Mark, how you doing.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, I'm great, Thanks for having me on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining. Listen this this is big money.
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  Speaker 2: Six point three million dollars to deal with a data breach,
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  Speaker 2: down from seven million dollars last year.
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  Speaker 1: That's nothing to scoff at.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's splitting hairs, it's down, it's up. It's
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  Speaker 4: a lot, you know, And it's funny because the rule
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  Speaker 4: of thumb for companies who are when they find extortion
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  Speaker 4: ransomware is you never pay.
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  Speaker 3: You never pay when you're face two.
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  Speaker 4: But some companies will do it because the alternative is
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  Speaker 4: unfathom mobile of losing all that customer data and the
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  Speaker 4: pr nightmare. But yeah, even just breaches when it's not ransomware,
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  Speaker 4: this is becoming a regular occurrence. Whether it's government institutions,
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  Speaker 4: small medium sized businesses, or even enterprise grade like big banks,
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  Speaker 4: they all suffer some kind of hack. And you know,
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  Speaker 4: I'd say it's preventable, but it is really a cat
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  Speaker 4: and mouse game where the cyber criminals out there have
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  Speaker 4: tools that are getting increasingly sophisticated, including ones that leverage AI,
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  Speaker 4: and then the cybersecurity experts who are helping to safeguard
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  Speaker 4: these businesses and it's not cheap for them to do so,
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  Speaker 4: of course they're also playing catch up and then you know,
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  Speaker 4: some get ahead, some don't.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, this is an ongoing problem, you know.
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  Speaker 4: And what's frustrating is that as a customer, as a consumer,
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  Speaker 4: if you are doing everything that you can do to
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  Speaker 4: reduce the odds of getting hacked, like you've got really good, long,
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  Speaker 4: complicated passwords for example, if a company suffers a data breach,
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  Speaker 4: then that's outside of your you know, what you're able
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  Speaker 4: to control. So it's frustrating because we're ultimately becoming the
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  Speaker 4: victim of it as well.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I know that the expert advice is to
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  Speaker 2: have multiple passwords, to be changing them often. That gets
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  Speaker 2: to be a little bit frustrating, and it gets to
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  Speaker 2: your point where you know, as the consumer, I can
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  Speaker 2: do absolutely everything right and it still doesn't matter if
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  Speaker 2: that breach happens.
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  Speaker 1: And listen, if someone you.
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  Speaker 2: Know gets into my Google drive that I don't use
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  Speaker 2: that often, and it's probably not the biggest of deals.
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  Speaker 2: But if someone gains access to, you know, my email
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  Speaker 2: as a whole, and they're able to go and communicate
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  Speaker 2: on my behalf with other people, maybe open up accounts,
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  Speaker 2: it gets really concerning. One that came to mind, though,
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  Speaker 2: was it was either Ancestry or twenty three and meters
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  Speaker 2: which suffered a massive data breach. And now we're talking
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  Speaker 2: genetic information.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, of course, yeah, highly personal sensitive data. And to
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  Speaker 4: your earlier point about passwords, here's my fun sort of
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  Speaker 4: thing to keep in mind. Passwords are like underwear, change
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  Speaker 4: them often, don't show them to anyone, and don't leave
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  Speaker 4: them lying around.
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  Speaker 3: But all kidding aside. Yeah, and here's where we're.
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  Speaker 4: Often guilty as Canadians, because it can be difficult to
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  Speaker 4: remember a long and complicated password, you know, with ten characters,
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  Speaker 4: you know, uppercase, lowercase, special symbols. What we do is
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  Speaker 4: at a laziness, we use that same password for everything.
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  Speaker 4: So if a company suffers a data breach, whether it's
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  Speaker 4: a DNA company or you know, what have you, it
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  Speaker 4: doesn't matter. A hospital we've saw sick kids being hacked
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  Speaker 4: last year. Then when you've used that same password for
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  Speaker 4: all your online activity. Now you're giving away the keys
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  Speaker 4: to the kingdom, right, So the answer, the easiest answer
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  Speaker 4: is to use a password manager, and that's that's the
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  Speaker 4: easiest way to not just manage, but they'll auto generate
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  Speaker 4: complicated passwords for you, synchronize it between your devices. You
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  Speaker 4: just need to know that one master password. And then
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  Speaker 4: the second tip is to opt for what's referred to
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  Speaker 4: as two factor authentication or multi factor authentication, where you
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  Speaker 4: don't only need your password to log in, but you
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  Speaker 4: need a second way to identify you.
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  Speaker 3: Usually it's a code sent to your mobile device.
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  Speaker 4: So MFA or multi factor authentication combines something you know,
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  Speaker 4: which is your password, with something you have like your
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  Speaker 4: phone or your fingerprint or your retina to scan what
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  Speaker 4: have you. So that's don't just buy those two things alone.
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  Speaker 4: By using a password manager and opting for a two
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  Speaker 4: factor or multi factor authentication, you're going to reduce the
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  Speaker 4: odds considerably. Yes, if a company suffers a data breach
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  Speaker 4: which is out of your control, there's at least they're
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  Speaker 4: not going to know the same password that you have
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  Speaker 4: for all your other activity.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you want to come up with a good password
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  Speaker 2: that you can use, Like I'm not going to give
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  Speaker 2: away my password live on air, but I can say
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  Speaker 2: that I come up with a template that changes the
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  Speaker 2: year that's in the password, and then I use acronyms
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  Speaker 2: for the sites that I'm on, So there is one
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  Speaker 2: base one that exists, but then it does change via
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  Speaker 2: some variables. And maybe I put my underwear out a
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  Speaker 2: little bit too much right there.
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  Speaker 1: But I didn't give you exactly what it was.
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  Speaker 4: You gave us a little peak the fruit of the
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  Speaker 4: looms behind your genes. I don't think you fully dropped
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  Speaker 4: your drawers there.
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  Speaker 1: No, I don't think so as well. Mark, thank you,
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  Speaker 1: But it's worrisome.
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  Speaker 2: It's concerning again, just the fact that there isn't anything
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  Speaker 2: the consumer can do if it happens.
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  Speaker 1: Is there?
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  Speaker 2: Like, I know we can't go putting our head in
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  Speaker 2: the sand, But should we necessarily be signing up for
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  Speaker 2: every new social media site that pops up or should
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  Speaker 2: we do a wait and see approach? I think back
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  Speaker 2: to like when Mastodon came out, when Twitter went through
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  Speaker 2: its thing and Blue Sky and Threads, and I haven't
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  Speaker 2: used those three things since they showed up quite frankly
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  Speaker 2: and I'm going maybe I shouldn't have given out my passwords.
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  Speaker 3: It's a good question.
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  Speaker 4: So yeah, a wait and see approach isn't so bad,
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  Speaker 4: especially Android. Unfortunately, Google Play is getting much better as
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  Speaker 4: an app store. But never be the first to download
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  Speaker 4: something brand new, because you don't know if there's any
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  Speaker 4: kind of malware malicious software in that app itself. Like
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  Speaker 4: you think it's, I don't know, an app for making
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  Speaker 4: funny faces or using AI to make you look fifty
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  Speaker 4: years older, but you don't know what data they're actually
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  Speaker 4: collecting and using. So wait until it's been thoroughly combed
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  Speaker 4: by Google and other players, and that there are at
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  Speaker 4: least a few thousand users that you know. The community
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  Speaker 4: is pretty vocal as well. They'll often say, Hey, there's
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  Speaker 4: something suspicious. It's asking for my contact information, when in
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  Speaker 4: fact this app has nothing to do with sharing anything.
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  Speaker 4: Why is it you know? Why does this map want
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  Speaker 4: to know you know this and that? And so, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: be cautious about that. You can use a password, so
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  Speaker 4: you can use an email address that you only use
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  Speaker 4: to sign up for things like contests and giveaways and
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  Speaker 4: new apps like like create a free Gmail or Yahoo
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  Speaker 4: or whatever address and use that only and segregate that
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  Speaker 4: email at least from your other activity and other things
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  Speaker 4: that the Canadian government recommends in order to protect yourself
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  Speaker 4: from a data breach, again aside from changing your passwords
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  Speaker 4: and not using the same passwords as others, is to
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  Speaker 4: review your bank account and credit card statements on a
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  Speaker 4: regular basis, look for anything suspicious and report it immediately.
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  Speaker 4: The good news is that credit card companies like Visa,
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  Speaker 4: they have a you know, they've got your back because
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  Speaker 4: they can only benefit from online shopping and so they
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  Speaker 4: will get you back get your back, which is good.
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  Speaker 4: Make sure there are no unauthorized transactions there. Report anything immediately.
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  Speaker 4: You can also if you access your credit report a
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  Speaker 4: soft pull not a hard poll, which can impact your
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  Speaker 4: credit rating, you can also review it.
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  Speaker 3: So there's a few things you can do.
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  Speaker 4: And if you are a victim of a data breach again,
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  Speaker 4: contact your financial institution immediately and contact Canada's two main
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  Speaker 4: credit bureaus Equifax and TransUnion.
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  Speaker 1: Those are the one we hear a lot about.
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  Speaker 2: Equifax is usually the software that's provided when there are
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  Speaker 2: data breaches, but I guess it's really just that constant
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  Speaker 2: vigilance is what it comes down to, isn't it.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And I don't say I'm a techie. Of course,
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you not to be a luddite.
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  Speaker 4: But I don't think the answer is, like you said earlier,
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  Speaker 4: just getting offline or stick in your head in the sand.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I think you can use technology responsibly. There
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  Speaker 4: are some things that are out of our control. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 4: hacks and breaches are part of everyday life.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 4: I hope that the good guys you know, are going
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  Speaker 4: to win here, but I don't I don't think you
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  Speaker 4: can can live offline completely, but be selective as you
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  Speaker 4: hinted at earlier, and know that cyber crime is it's
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  Speaker 4: not just financially motivated. It could be politically motivated. So
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  Speaker 4: we're going to start seeing this a lot more. We're
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  Speaker 4: going to see cyber warfare, you know, become a bigger thing,
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  Speaker 4: you know, in the next generation.
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  Speaker 3: So there's only so much you can do.
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  Speaker 2: But just be.
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  Speaker 4: Responsible as best as you can within your power, and
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  Speaker 4: and just be be vigilant, as you said, to review
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  Speaker 4: those statements and don't put yourself out there by you know,
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  Speaker 4: being responsible. But the answer is not logging off and
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  Speaker 4: living like a ludite only paying cash.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think that's the answer.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with you on that one. Well, hey,
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  Speaker 2: thanks for joining me, Mark. I really appreciate you breaking
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  Speaker 2: this down for us.
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  Speaker 3: Me too, Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: I have a great day.
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  Speaker 2: You can check Mark Saltzman here on AM eight hundred
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  Speaker 2: c KLW. He's the host of Tech Tech Talk that
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: is on Sundays from five to six pm. You're listening
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  Speaker 2: to Dan McDonald show. I am John Lidkey here in studio.
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  Speaker 2: For the rest of this.
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  Speaker 1: Show and the week for Dan, don't go anywhere. We'll
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  Speaker 1: be back right after that.