I read just read this article Best Western and the worst kind of security mix-up. Over the past couple of days it has emerged that customer details, including name, address, phone and credit card numbers were stolen when Best Western were hacked by an Indian hacker with ties to the Russian Mafia.

What needs to be further highlighted is that as we commit more information to electronic storage and retrieval, it is more vulnerable. As we have see in the past year of data loses, vast amounts of information can be lost or exposed through very simple human error or negligence.

Tougher encryption and security is also a joke. In the programming world it is well know that if you can code it, you can hack it. Examples of so called unbreakable security are the DVD format and the security researchers cloning the new passport chips.

We are truly heading towards an information age where there are no secrets, regardless of the noise government makes. Big Brother is its own worst enemy. The traditional idea of security has to be radically rethought.

We are seeing this theme being played out currently in the world of software development, especially with web browsers and Operating Systems. We see the realm of Open Source where vulnerabilities are publicly acknowledged and addressed verses proprietary commercial software where the mantra is security through obscurity (Apple) and denial (Macintosh).

Last year on Google Maps you could go and look at satellite images of a top secret US Navy submarine in dry dock. The US military screamed to take down the images. D'uh hello? If a commercial satellite snapped pictures of this submarine with out looking for it, what about all of the spy satellites that are?

It all goes to show that our concept of security is no more than just that, a concept, or at worse a dangerous expensive joke.

Last year a story emerged that security researchers managed to skim information at a distance from an Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) card and clone it. This has ramifications for many things as the technology is used for, entry to secure buildings, passports and transport cards.

It is with transport cards, namely London's Oyster card that the issue has arisen again with another security hole found by Dutch researchers. They managed to clone an oyster card to a standard building security entry card which uses the same technology. They then travelled to London to test their clone, travelling for a full day on the London Tube with no problems.

Apparently the hardware required to skim the information is relatively cheap and can easily be used with a standard laptop, making RFID cards and passports vulnerable to anyone with know-how and inclination.

More detail about this story can be found in the following article: "Group Demonstrates Security Hole in Oyster Card".

The contents of the Recording Industry Association of America’s website was removed from public view over the weekend thanks in part to a link posted on social networking site Reddit.com. Hackers used a SQL exploit that the Reddit link directed them to.

The RIAA, infamous for pursuing music file sharers and calling for tighter controlls was, we assume left somewhat embaressed by the whole affair.

This does not come at a good time. Major record label EMI is pressuring the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) into a merger with the RIAA, as they both have not produced the results expected. Namely successful legal cases against people engaged in file sharing.

The IFPI estimates that the “big four” record labels – EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner – give approximately £64 million ($141.5 million) each year to itself, the RIAA and other associations.