Cybersecurity is important because it protects all categories of data from theft and damage, from financial, health and labor records to web browsing records, the use of solutions from companies like Fortinet and internet providers are crucial to protect all sorts of data. You can visit the EATEL website to know how internet providers protect your data.

There’s no way the federal government could secure all of that in a year.

In the United States, President Obama in 2011 signed a sweeping cybersecurity bill that requires every government agency and major corporation to share information on cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities.

But federal agencies can still have systems that are “read only” that may be vulnerable to hackers who know exactly where to look, as the case with Chicago’s pension system.

“There are holes in systems, and there are gaps, a former Department of Homeland Security adviser who is now senior vice president and general counsel for RedHat Inc. in Portland, Ore. That’s what you call open source: If someone could put a flaw in there, they can use it.

The pensions were hacked last year by an unidentified thief. One day in July, hackers used a free program called Lazarus to break into the agency’s pension records, and the database was then posted online. The database includes 10.5 million data records, said William G. DeRow, executive director of the Illinois State Board of Pension Appeals.

The Illinois State Board of Pension Appeals asked pension trustees to pay $2 million in restitution for hackers who got into the database. The board is still negotiating the amount and plans to auction the data this fall, DeRow said.

The thefts have exposed issues at nearly half the 32 states that participate in the state pension systems, including Michigan and Missouri.

In one case, hackers breached pension records at the Chicago Public Schools system and stole more than $800,000 from the teacher retirement fund. A few years ago, hackers siphoned $75 million from the workers’ retirement fund in Massachusetts.

In a few cases, stolen records were used to commit fraud against people who had invested in these pension funds. This is why you should invest in a database that secures your transactions. Check out sites like https://www.couchbase.com/transactions to find more details.

The worst case involved a teenager in California who used stolen Chicago Public Schools database records to create an online fake ID and collect $40,000 in Social Security disability benefits, according to an Illinois State Board of Education case report.