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With many organisations recently suffering from data breaches of its email lists, and the likes of Sony, ACS:Law and most recently Square Enix losing much more sensitive data, it raises the question as to how this has happened.

Is it a problem with the security common algorithms (eg RC4 with 128 bit keys) compared to modern computers? Should a higher minimum key strength be employed?

Have some hackers (whether criminal or more benign) have the upperhand in finding non-obvious weaknesses in common algorithms?

Or, is it simply a case of lazyness/incompetence on the corporate side, using cheaper, less secure methods?

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    This is really a too broad question to answer. Every company has their own security guidelines and every implementation is different. The problem is probably not security algorithms but very specific exploits depending on the system attacked.
    – slhck
    May 14, 2011 at 13:25
  • @slhck Hmm, thought it might be. Was mainly wondering about whether or not it is a problem of encryption strength, but tried to frame in a rounded way. Edit, delete or CW?
    – James
    May 14, 2011 at 13:28

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Both poor practices & lack of (rather then weakness of) encryption.

Like storing passwords in plain text, or not salting ...

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