The personal data of 552 million web users has been compromised over the past year, according to a new study, which coincides with the discovery of a new bug which it is claimed could hit billions of people.
Symantec detected the increase through its Global Intelligence Network, which uses 69 million attack sensors across 157 countries to detect harmful activities on the web. The network detected a 62% rise in the number of data breaches over the past year.
Senior manager for Symantec Security Response Orla Cox said the breaches are particularly devastating as they impact end customers as much as the companies themselves. “These targeted attacks affect everybody. For example if you look at card breaches, the card holders are victims as much as the businesses,” she said.
Meanwhile concerns are growing over the so-called Heartbleed bug, after experts discovered a major flaw in hundreds of thousands of web and email servers worldwide which run open source software known as OpenSSL.
The issue is so serious some in the industry are urging people not to go online for a few days until the flaw can be “patched”.
A blog post by Tumblr said: “This means that the little lock icon (HTTPS) we all trusted to keep our passwords, personal emails, and credit cards safe, was actually making all that private information accessible to anyone who knew about the exploit.
“This might be a good day to call in sick and take some time to change your passwords everywhere – especially your high-security services like email, file storage, and banking, which may have been compromised by this bug.”
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