Researchers are warning that an otherwise positive European data regulation has introduced massive risks to individuals and the companies they work for.
Ever since the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Internet users in Europe — and in many places around the world following suit — have been able to download the entirety of the data that websites save about them. Besides the obvious benefits to privacy and transparency, the idea was portability: Anyone could take the data one site possessed about them and transfer it to another.
In a new blog post, CyberArk highlights a theoretical yet severe cost to this new right to data portability. Before the rule, everyone’s most sensitive data was protected behind brick walls at ultrasecure data centers. Now that users can retrieve that data via a cloud-based mechanism, hackers can access their accounts and steal it all. Considering the extent of the data that websites collect about us today, the possibilities for…