journal features

Vtech data breach

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2015.12.01

I sent a friend a note about the latest data breach that's in the news: Vtech. This time, it was data on kids that's in the mix. He and I are both dads, I figured he'd want to know. His response was this:

> Maybe they should not even have been keeping that data in the first place?

That's at the root of every breach. Why do we share our SIN/SSN with anyone other than our employer? A bank or insurance company can do a credit check without it – they just want it for that one purpose, then it (illegally) becomes your client identifier within the institution. Then it multiplies across systems ranging from billing to market research that is shared with "partner firms" unless you specifically opt-out. Which you have to do, for instance, with a credit card EACH AND EVERY TIME they send you a new card.

All of this unnecessary data just sits around, growing in street value until someone comes looking.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force