All wireless data can be compromised in one fell swoop: Expert
One little phone hack can comprise all the data on wireless communications and take out the entire system — regardless of phone and carrier, according to a data breach expert at Experian, the world’s biggest credit company.
Experian on Tuesday released its latest edition of their data breach industry forecast for 2019. The report found that smartphones present major vulnerabilities as it pertains to data.
“All the data on wireless can be compromised with one fell swoop,” said Michael Bruemmer, vice president of the Experian Data Breach Resolution group, who has more than 25 years of industry experience to Stuart Varney.
Bruemmer said not using a virtual private network [VPN] or password protection could allow you to be tracked.
“It’ll affect all carriers and all phones because they are using the same network,” he said. “So it can happen all at once that the system goes down.”
Smartphones have become an integral part of everyday life from paying bills with mobile wallet services to social networking on platforms like Twitter and Facebook and business purposes. And according to Bruemmer, there are about 427 million phones kicking around the U.S. alone. He said no one is safe.
“Your phone contains lots of personal identity information -- geo-location tracking, social media information,” he said. “And if someone can hack into your phone they can download all of that data and that can happen regardless of what type of phone or what type of network.”
But there’s no need to panic just yet. Bruemmer said there are some easy ways to help protect data.
“Your phone should be enabled with VPN and encryption technology is available whether it’s through your company or individually,” he said. “And as long as you’re using that you shouldn’t have any problems with the data being compromised.”