Governor O’Malley has declared October to be cyber security awareness month.  The Federal Government has as well. What does that mean? Well, according to the Governor, it’s necessary to remind all Americans that we need to protect the security of cyberspace from the viruses, theft, hacking and loss of sensitive information that has become a daily occurrence.

So, how serious is the cyber security issue? Well… bad and getting worse. The main reason is that businesses that are running .com websites are not focused on securing them. Reports indicate that 91% of websites are vulnerable. If you think this is too high, then consider that G.1440’s experience is that 86% are vulnerable…meaning that basically 9 out of 10 are Swiss cheese.

Making matters even worse is that hacking has changed to be a stealth crime… business owners believe that they are safe as long as they aren’t aware of anything bad happening…this is very, very wrong…according to Verizon data breach report, 63% of business owners don’t know for months that they have been hacked. Hackers infect your site and then plot their next steps…even if your site is simple and just an online brochure, you can still be implicated in a crime where your business is used as a front for a hacker…and all without you knowing it. Sound crazy? Unfortunately, it isn’t farfetched at all and is happening today.

One last myth that must be exposed is that firewalls will prevent your website from being hacked…this is simply not true.

Basically, the .coms are not paying attention to this critical issue and need to start. The US Govt is spending 100 million on protecting government sites only to have them attacked by their own citizen’s computers and websites. Several officials that I have spoken to have predicted that scanning of .com websites will be mandatory – this will happen due to the need for all sites to be protected.

The Federal Government is clearly stepping things up and has just announced that the Department of Homeland Security is going to be hiring over 1000 security specialists.

What can you do to protect yourself?  For starters, ask the business owners you know if they are aware that October is Cyber security Awareness month and if they have had their website scanned for hacking vulnerabilities.

Next, only visit sites you trust – especially true for downloads as hacked websites will give you more than you asked for when you click a link to download…a click is just an opening for a hacker to send you whatever they want.

Remember to keep your browser security as up to date as possible as your computer can be infected just by visiting a website that has been compromised.   Keep your virus protection; spyware; id protection software up to date and consider the use of a link scanner… www.avg.com has a good one that is free. Lastly, back up your critical key files just in case.

It is a crazy world wide web right now and you need to take steps to keep yourself safe. Unfortunately, actually fixing the problem will require businesses to start scanning and repairing their websites. Hang in there… this situation will improve as more and more people become aware of it.

We spend half our lives online…buying and selling stuff, creating social media pages, passwords, gaming personas…so what happens to our online life when we pass away in real life. Someone needs to manage and/or shut down all those accounts…and to do that, they will need access.  To solve this issue, online companies are setting up websites to help you manage your digital persona after you pass away as well as to create memorials for loved ones that have passed away.  The online world has become so important to people, that your digital life and digital memories of loved ones are now being preserved by a host of companies.

In case you haven’t thought about all of your personal data that is stored on the web, here are some examples of online information that could be/should be preserved and communicated to someone after you pass away… online banking/stock passwords and transactions, copies of wills, bank accounts, gaming personas such as Second life that will continue to live (at least a little while), eBay items that are sold and PayPal accounts, domains that are owned that must be managed…. the  list goes on and on… the list gets big in a hurry.

More and more people are beginning to recognize that your passwords and online info needs to be passed on to your wife or husband, but the offline solutions don’t really work in the online world.  For our real lives, we have safety deposit boxes and wills…but the online world that is full of passwords and logins that aren’t really written down anywhere.  And what is worse, think of the bind that we will leave for loved ones or friends in if they have to try to figure all of this information out after we are gone.

There are a number of companies that are working on solving this issue… here are just a few….www.legacylocker.com; www.assetlock.com, www.slightlymorbid.com, www.findagrave.com, www.deathswitch.com, www.eternalspace.com, …interesting names, huh.   More are available and they are easy to find on your favorite search engine.

A Legacy Locker account costs $29.99 a year. While setting up an account, you specify who gets access to your info should you no longer be in need of signing on…if you know what I mean!  Once you pass away, your designees contact Legacy Locker and once a verification process is completed, the information is turned over to you.

There is one very big risk to all of this… hacking.  While it is great that companies are working to solve this need, this creates a hacking bonanza or nightmare depending on how you look at it. Security is going to be critical for this information, and this means that you need to be familiar with the security policies of any company prior to hiring them.

So what are some of the services that you can hire these types of companies to do?  Well, everything from a secure online safe deposit box for digital copies of documents, wishes, letters and emails, to planning real life activities – the funeral, the memorial, the grave site, to virtual memorial pages for videos, pictures and tributes.

The interesting trend here is that as our online lives continue to become more important, the early adopters of online technology are beginning to think about their own mortality…this is a logical thought pattern to follow… when the internet was new, so were our accounts and online lives…now it is 15 years later, and the internet is much more important to us.

Be sure to do your due diligence should you consider hiring one of these firms.  I will continue to keep you posted as this develops.