From techrepublic.com
Abine CEO Rob Shavell says hackers “are brokering and selling information about you that you never really consented to have them sell.” Shavell talks to TechRepublic’s Dan Patterson. The following is an edited transcript of the interview.
Dan Patterson: Rob Shavell, CEO of Abine. A lot of personal data is shockingly available on the Dark Web and on the Clear Net. We almost joke about the amount of data that’s leaked when we see big breaches like at Yahoo or Equifax. I wonder if you could help us understand. Take us inside the amount of data, and what types of data are available about consumers easily?
Rob Shavell: You used the key word, which is “easily.” A lot of data has, actually, always been available about all of us. Prior to the advent of the Internet, a lot of that data is siloed in hard-to-find places. Here’s an example: If you bought a house, that record would often be deposited on paper at your local court house. If you wanted to find out who lived there, what ages the people were, how much they paid for a house, and, then, walk over to actually see the front of the house on the street, all of that would require a whole lot of effort, and most people wouldn’t make that effort. These days, all of that information has been pulled into very, very easy-to-find and, in fact, easy-to-purchase dossiers of information available on the public web.