2014: The year everyone's security took a hit

Summary: The past year has shown that each and every person is less secure than they thought on January 1, 2014, and for popping that bubble, we should be thankful.
 
By Chris Duckett for Null Pointer | November 30, 2014
 
In the pigpen of security during 2014, all hogs, regardless of affiliation and technology choices, found themselves covered in muck at some stage. The amount of muck involved varied from platform to platform, but no one could claim to remain untarnished by year's end.
Whether it was the widely distributed OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability, OS X and iOS being caught in man-in-the-middle SSL attacks, or Windows' recent Schannel remote code execution issues, the common thread that ran through each platform was what was once referred to as Secure Sockets Layer, but would be more aptly dubbed Swiss cheese when all was said and done.
With all players suffering, and each new vulnerability revealing only what not to use rather than what techniques and technology should be used, regular users would be forgiven for feeling less sure of the security with each passing day. But such are the experiences that must be worked through in order to learn that an incorrectly perceived reality is nothing but self-delusion.
If 2013 was the year the world learned through whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the United States and its Five Eyes allies were monitoring communications worldwide, then 2014 was the year that we learned how easily those agencies, and other actors no doubt, could do it.
 
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