{"id":14471,"date":"2024-02-23T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T08:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1404058"},"modified":"2024-02-23T08:00:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T08:00:48","slug":"hackers-are-hunting-celebs-digital-ids-can-help-but-come-with-caveats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=14471","title":{"rendered":"Hackers are hunting celebs. Digital IDs can help \u2014 but come with caveats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to cyberattacks<\/span>, celebrities have a huge target on their backs. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just consider the news at the end of 2023 where Rhysida, the infamous hacking group, <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> it had attacked King Edward VII\u2019s Hospital, a private health institution in London. This is bad enough by itself, but what really elevated this news from \u201canother day, another attack,\u201d was the fact the hackers claimed to have obtained sensitive medical data on the British Royal Family.<\/span><\/p>\n

The King Edward VII Hospital <\/span>has provided close care<\/span><\/a> to the family for over a hundred years, having looked after the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II, and King Charles III, to name but a few.<\/span><\/p>\n

This makes it \u2014 and other hospitals serving the rich and famous \u2014 a treasure trove for hackers. If bad actors get hold of this sort of sensitive data<\/a>, it can be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes, whether that\u2019s extortion, blackmail, or any other range of motives, political or otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In this instance, the Royal Family got off lightly. Although it\u2019s not clear precisely what happened, a few days after the announcement, Rhysida <\/span>took down the note<\/span><\/a> on their website<\/span> about the Royal Family. The data wasn\u2019t leaked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, we could spend some time unravelling this mystery, but, to me, the damage was already done. A glaring weakness was shown to the world. With this, a question: what do high-profile individuals like the Royal Family do about this threat?<\/span><\/p>\n

Could famous people decouple themselves from public and private institutions? How would this work? And is it even possible?<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to find out. So that\u2019s exactly what I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting deep with digital identities<\/h2>\n

\u201cDigital identity, in its simplest form, is a set of facts about you,\u201d says Andrew Bud, the founder and CEO of <\/span>iProov<\/span><\/a>, a London-based identity verification and authentication service. <\/span><\/p>\n

It makes sense. Then, one would assume, the easiest way for the wealthy and powerful to protect themselves would be to decouple their digital identity from institutions. That\u2019d work, right? Surely?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the modern era of data breaches and ransomware farming<\/a>, the idea that any information is a safe secret is fiction,\u201d Bud says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ah. It appears we\u2019re off to a rocky start. If no data is safe, how can anyone be? Should we all just pack our bags and give up?<\/span><\/p>\n

Bud doesn\u2019t think so: \u201cWhat matters most from a security perspective is securing your data so that it can\u2019t be monetised or exploited for unauthorised use.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, it\u2019s all about authorisation. Securing <\/span>who<\/span><\/i> can access your data \u2014 something we\u2019ll return to later. That then means it\u2019s possible for high-profile individuals to decouple their digital identities, it just needs to be done holistically. <\/span><\/p>\n

But how would it work?<\/span><\/p>\n

Making the great decoupling happen<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt is in the realms of possibility for individuals to leverage additional technologies to decouple their digital identity from their healthcare or operational data,\u201d Matt Berzinski, senior director of product management at <\/span>Ping Identity<\/span><\/a>, tells me. <\/span><\/p>\n

The key to this, he believes, is \u201cdecentralised identity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
<\/i><\/a>The hackers targeting King Edward VII\u2019s Hospital threatened to reveal the Royal Family\u2019s health data. Credit: Michael Garnett<\/a><\/figcaption>