A False Sense of Security on the Internet?

Sony officials held a news conference in early May in Tokyo. They apologized for the theft of personal information from millions of users of the company’s online services. Hackers targeted Sony’s PlayStation Network, Sony Online Entertainment and Qriocity music systems. In all, Sony says information may have been stolen from more than one hundred million accounts. The data includes information like names, addresses, phone numbers and birthdates. In some cases, even credit and debit card numbers may have been stolen. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the cyber attacks. Sony shut down its PlayStation Network on April twentieth. The company is being criticized for not telling its users about the stolen information until a week later. Sony has also been criticized for not making its accounts more secure by encrypting the data. Sony officials say they have now taken steps to improve security. Peter Warren is chairman of the Cyber Security Research Institute in London. His group studies technology crimes and their effects on our computer-dependent world. Mr. Warren points out that what happened at Sony is not rare: “We’ve seen a number of very large companies that have suffered some tremendously embarrassing losses of data.”The problem, he says, is that there is far more interest in developing technology than in keeping it safe. As he puts it: “Lots and lots of people are being allowed to connect a lot of technology up before it’s really been particularly well-tested.” Peter Warren also points out that many people have a false sense of security online. “On the Internet,” he says,” they seem to be so blindly trusting of anybody and of any website, no matter how suspicious it may look.” His message to users is simple: try to be more careful on websites. He says: “The Internet is just like any other street and there are some twists and turns that can take you in to some very, very unsavory places.”For VOA Special English, I’m Alex Villarreal. To read and listen to more technology news and for English teaching activities, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook at VOA Learning English.