Looks like Equifax gets a junk bond rating in the personal information handling. This company should be shut down. 3.1B revenue and can't secure data, not even really trying. Greed.
I'm not really sure the protocol is up to the job, while theoretically it would appear possible to secure data on the internet, the reality seems to be that the complexity of the systems involved means there is no reliable solution.
They seem pretty capable, so far, of keeping their own collected data secured.
Not trying to stick up for Google here, but, like MS, there seems to not be a real breach there.
A lot of people are making the assumption that digital information can be somehow protected when in fact it seems the opposite assumption is more likely to be correct--any information in digital form accessible on a network will be compromised. It's just a matter of time and not even a very long time in most cases.
What if we take this as a starting assumption for information management? I think this leads you to a different way of thinking of information protection, specifically that we need to come up with ways to extend the time that private information remains protected. For example, what prevents us from having physical "information wallets" that we carry around with us and unlock only on demand and in return for specific services? This sounds a lot like an iPhone. Why don't we put things like medical records in them?
I think the technology to do this is already on the horizon, especially if you assume that the information that people truly need to protect (e.g., financial records) is not that large.