You Won't Get Hacked with Help of New USB Device
Today, Americans are more frightened of having computer and credit card information hacked than being burglarized or mugged. Cyber attacks are causing more fear than physical ones, according to a Gallup poll, and those number will likely increase with issues like the Bash vulnerability cropping up.
Millions of users' data have been comprised in the last few years, so up-and-coming developer Webcloak is introducing a product that will let anyone browse the Internet “with no risk of viruses, data, or identity theft.”
"Cyber security is a pressing issue for our modern society, which is ever more dependent on the Internet for all aspects of our business and personal lives," said Martin Dawson, Webcloak's founder and chief technology officer.
The USB device is aptly named Webcloak, and is being described as a consumer-ready, self-contained product that creates an anonymous Internet environment. There’s no software to be downloaded or third-party network in use. This is meant as a simple, yet powerful, barrier between a client machine and the Internet.
It’s a consumer product aimed at your average Joe, and its successful Kickstarter campaign proves that people are, in fact, willing to pay for additional security. Once it’s plugged in, every bit of data is encrypted using a modified version of AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is a 256-bit given the highest possible security level encryption rating by the National Security Agency.
As previously stated, people are becoming more and more concerned over their security. But it’s not because we have a greater number of buffer-overflow Trojans or email worms. Instead, we deal with fewer issues that cause a greater amount of financial and personal damage.
Apple, Twitter, Microsoft—the biggest companies that we trust our most personal data with have all had major malware issues in the last few years. Confidence in our privacy and personal information protection might fortify over time, but it seems as though security will have to get worse before it gets better.
Even if the Webcloak doesn’t solve each and every security problem the cyber world has, it’s a step in the right direction. We might not be able to prevent hackers from crashing systems that are powering multibillion dollar companies, but we might soon have the power to build walls protecting our own precious information.
