Today morning I woke up to the news of the data breach at Air India- a government owned airline carrier.
This data breach affected more than 4.5 million user data information including names, date of birth, passport and credit card information. The breach involved data registered between 26 August 2011- 20 February 2021 which is close to 10 years of data.
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The 3-day boot camp on Data Protection was quite insightful. How do I take this forward by enrolling for your Diploma course. How do I process the payment from Nigeria.
Data is a fact or a collection of facts. It can be true or false; it can be a text or a number; it can be a video or an audio. When I put a post on Facebook today morning by just saying “Good morning all”, I had given out a piece of data for all the people on the platform to see and to comment/respond, if they choose to. The question is, who owns that data? Does Facebook owns that data or am I the owner, and if so, to what extent?
Social media platforms are owned by someone and users are using it, without having much realization as to, on what grounds are they providing this service for free! No body is paying to Google for a search just made. Nobody is paying to Instagram for a photo just posted. Nobody is paying Twitter for a tweet just posted. These big technology companies are making use of your data, after all the consent from the users are obtained! Can anyone argue against this?
The breach of data occurred at India’s national airliner, Air India during the past 10 years, is an eye opener for the policy makers to take actions, sooner rather than later. Recently Bookings.com was penalized by Dutch Data Protection Authority (Bookings.com is registered in Nederlands) for a breach of data occurred outside their jurisdiction, in the UAE. (Ref.: https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/booking-com-fined-560-000-for-gdpr-data-breach-violation). This shows how strong the GDPR legislation is and yet, how vulnerable the structure is!
I can leave a thought regarding, how the law can apply to cyberspace. Legal codes, as we read on legal documents, are framed for taking actions, if an event occurs. However, the software codes, as it is coded by technological companies, can prevent such an event from occurring. So, who should be taught the cyber laws? The answer can lead us to find, who is responsible for our data.