But what many people don’t realize is that Americans’ cybersecurity is also at risk. That’s because privacy and security are two sides of the same coin: privacy is about controlling who has access to information about you, and security is how you maintain that control. You usually can’t break one without breaking the other, and that’s especially true in this context. To show how, here are five ways repealing the FCC’s privacy rules will weaken Americans’ cybersecurity.
Read the article for more details on each of these five ways, including technical and easy to understand examples of how it works.
Risk #1: Snooping On Traffic (And Creating New Targets for Hackers)
Risk #2: Erasing Encryption (And Making it Easier for Hackers to Spy On You)
Risk #3: Inserting Ads Into Your Browsing (And Opening Holes In Your Browsing Security)
Risk #4: Zombie Supercookies (Allowing Hackers to Track You Wherever You Go)
Risk #5: Spyware (Which Opens the Door for Malware)
In the end, the cybersecurity implications of repealing the FCC’s privacy rules come from simple logic. If the privacy rules are repealed, Internet providers will resume and accelerate these dangerous practices with the aim of monetizing their customers’ browsing history and app usage. But in order to do that, Internet providers will need to record and store even more sensitive data on their customers, which will become a target for hackers. Internet providers will also be incentivized to break their customers’ security, so they can see all the valuable encrypted data their customers send. And when Internet providers break their customers’ security, you can be sure malicious hackers will be right on their heels.
The net result is simple: repealing the FCC’s privacy rules won’t just be a disaster for Americans’ privacy. It will be a disaster for America’s cybersecurity, too.
Share other articles or offer your point of view. This isn't just an EFF issue. You could argue that Google, Amazon, and Facebook do the same thing, but the difference with ISPs (like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Cox, etc.), is that you don't have a choice about which ISP or cable company you use, and they have vast amounts of customer data that they can use however they want. The risks are disastrous. It wasn't clear what choices we have, either.
Internet Privacy is abolished because of the house vote to repeal the FCC rules on privacy established by the Obama administration. The next victim of this privacy genocide is Net Neutrality. it wont be long until ISPs start using throttling methods to slow down lanes of information.
ReplyDeletePrivacy and cyber security has been a major issue in our society for the past few years. I believe that people should be worried about this issue and they should take it seriously because government officials talk about our own privacy like its something they can control. People should stand strong agains any rules that might affect their privacy. Also, I believe it's the government job to protect our information from any companies that want to take advantage of our data.
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